


Absence and Duality

by Grae_Coltrane



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Aegis swap AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Beta-read up to chapter 4, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, Not Torna ~ The Golden Country Compliant, but I took a few liberties with Ophion, it's not completely noncompliant either, rotbart gets rotted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-29 14:59:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 59,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13929504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grae_Coltrane/pseuds/Grae_Coltrane
Summary: “Rex, don’t touch that!” Pyra’s words are no deterrent for a man entranced by a sword. He closes the gap, and the crystal responds to his touch much in the way the doors had—it begins glowing with more intensity immediately. The purple washes over the room until it’s white hot, but upon further consideration, the explosion of white and purple at the edges of his vision might have something more to do with the sword that’s been plunged through his back.[aegiswap AU]





	1. Peace and Security

“Sorry, how much?” Rex resists the urge to let his mouth hang open. The money he’s being offered is more than he’s seen in his life. “You’re joking, right?”

“Actually, that only the advance.” Chairman Bana pronounces the words with the exact pompous air that one would expect from a man willing to offer an advance of a hundred thousand gold on a job. “Another 100,000 gold upon completion of job.” Rex pales, the mere thought of 200,000 gold more than enough incentive to accept.

He stammers, not quite grasping the magnitude of such a sum. “I-I must be dreaming! 200,000 in total?” He straightens his posture, a fire in his eyes. “I’ll take it. I hereby swear that I will use every skill I possess to ensure this job’s completion.” 

It’s only when the words have left his mouth in a flurry of greed and determination that Rex realizes that he hasn’t actually received any information about this job past its pay, as Bana is quick to point out. “You really have skills for job…?” 

Rex nearly jumps to reassure Bana, and the Nopon shrugs, asking his attendant to bring the crew in. In the time it takes for the attractive young woman to retrieve the crew, Rex is left to stand there and speculate on what kind of people would be looking to hire a salvager for such a hefty sum. Whatever he expects, it’s not the two girls who enter the room, each trailed by a Blade.

The first girl is garbed in a yellow jumpsuit with a lopsided belt that keeps two large hoops on one side and three small knives at the other side of her waist. Her silver hair is short and flawlessly blends into a pair of matching ears, indicating the girl’s Gormotti bloodline. To keep her vision clear, there’s a shock of color in the form of two yellow ribbons tying her hair out of the way on either side. She is flanked by a large tiger, a beast type Blade with eyes that are human and out of place on what could easily be mistaken for an animal in the wilds if not for the glowing blue core crystal nestled in his fluff.

The next girl—no, woman—that enters the room is likely the prettiest woman Rex has ever seen. She’s tall and carries herself with a demure grace that somehow stands unfaltering and proud against the others in the room. Her hair is red, fiery red, and matches the rest of her outfit—striking red against pale skin. Her shoulders are covered in a red, hooded cloak that covers her chest, and the underside of the cape is lined in a shimmery gold fabric that seems to soften her appearance. Her long legs are encased in matching thigh high socks, coupled with shorts that are too short for Rex to keep a clear head.

She’s equal parts delicate curves and sharp lines, and Rex has to remind himself that he needs to breathe and stay in the present moment.

Her Blade is intimidating. That’s the only word he can think to form after the shock of _her_ , and he realizes that it’s because it’s strangely fitting when applied to the lady in red. The two are just intimidating. The Blade stands tall behind the woman, glaring at the world with the authority of a man with one purpose that he’s never once had difficulty in achieving. 

The two Drivers and their Blades step to the side, and it’s only now that Rex notices the fifth of his employers, a man reminiscent of a volff, with hard, unflinching eyes and a silver mask. He stands completely secure in himself and his safety, and he is not accompanied by his own Blade.

“There’s something we want to haul up,” the man speaks, his voice forcing Rex to re-focus. “There were some current shifts, and it showed up in an uncharted area. But it’s a long way down.” He emphasizes long, as if it were meant to deter the young salvager. Rex merely puffs out his chest, grinning from ear to ear. The thought of 200,000 gold flashes across his mind, filling him with determination.

“Nice, I like a good challenge!” 

“Bana offered to assemble team of veterans for job, but this crew very picky. Only want small elite team, and only from Leftheria. That when Bana have stroke of genius, should hire Rex!”

Rex lets out an elated laugh, throwing an arm behind his head. “You made the right choice!” Before he can finish his thought, the Gormotti girl laughs, unable to contain herself.

“A child salvager? You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says, mirth clear in her eyes. “Jin, don’t tell me we’re going to have to hire some babysitters for this outing, too.”

Rex raises an eyebrow at her insinuation, stepping towards her in his annoyance. “What the hell? You look just as much like a kid as I do.” It’s true—she’s shorter than him, her face youthful and matching her voice. He’s willing to bet that if they stood facing each other at full height, he’d easily be several inches taller than her, and he’d stake a good thousand gold that they were around the same age.

She’s still snickering, eyes wicked as she looks him over once. “At least I wouldn’t wet myself at a measly hundred grand.”

“What are you trying to say?” He’s halfway across the room now, only half thinking about all the gold he might be forfeiting. 

Her Blade clears his throat suddenly, bowing his head with a grace that suits his stature. “Rex, was it? I implore you to excuse my lady’s discourtesy.” Before Rex can respond, his attention is drawn back to the Driver.

Her ears flicker in annoyance, and she lets out a slight growl. “Dromarch! What have I told you about—”

“Nia,” the red lady speaks, her voice just as lovely as her appearance. _Focus, Rex._ “You should calm down. He may be young, but it’s not difficult to test his prowess without resorting to insults.” She looks directly at him for the first time, and Rex’s heart threatens to burst. At first he thinks it’s because of her beauty and her burning red irises, but then he picks up half a second’s dangerous intent before she draws the sword from her waist with lightning speed.

He reacts with a practiced speed, forged after five years of living only under Azurda’s guidance, and dodges her sudden lunge, drawing his weapon the moment he gets the chance. It’s just in time, too—he has less than a second to block her next swing, and catches it with him own sword, glaring at her with exactly as much intensity as is merited by a sudden ambush. She looks down at him with interest for a long moment that almost makes him feel like he’s dying a little bit before she gracefully, effortlessly sends him staggering backwards with a single movement of her sword.

“What the hell’re you tryin’ to do?” Rex nearly yells, temper flaring. She merely smiles, sheathing the sword without looking.

“Well, you won’t die, at least not here,” she says simply.

“Pyra! What good is there in beating up a kid like this?” The Gormotti girl, Nia, says, shocked at the woman’s actions.

“You were the one who brought up the fact that he didn’t seem capable,” she says simply, the air crackling around her even after she’s sheathed her weapon.

“I said nothing of the sort!” Nia’s ears are raised up in her anger, and Rex finds himself appreciating the change in her demeanor. He likes her better now that she’s defending him.

“I’m confused. What other concern would you have about his age? It’s not as if he would have survived the job if he couldn’t even block one of my attacks, anyhow.” She looks back at him with an approving glance. He relaxes a bit, sword still firmly in both hands as she surveys him.

“I approve,” she says simply. “Skill, and guts. I’m sure that whether you provide good work is out of the question.” She nods to Jin and Nia and strides out, followed closely by all except Nia, who lets out a heavy, full-body sigh. When she turns her head to see Rex looking at her, she shoots him a glare and follows after the other two without a second look, only Dromarch offering him the dignity of a goodbye in the form of bowing his head respectfully.

The treatment from Rex’s new employers leaves a sour taste in his mouth, which quickly clears along with the air when Bana places a large bag on his desk that rings out with the sweet sound only a hundred thousand gold can make.

Rex thanks him, the shock of the amount fading only for the true weight of his payment to be renewed in his head once he picks up the large bag of gold in one fist. _This must be what power feels like,_ he thinks with a gulp, putting it into the bag on his side and triple checking that everything is secured before going out into the central area of Goldmouth.

The amount doesn’t truly sink in until he speaks to Melolo, the noponic woman at central exchange who he normally goes through to send money home. He finds himself leaning over the counter with a conspiratorial whisper when he’s forced to relay exactly _how much_ money he’d come into, and finally it sinks in when Melolo nearly shouted the same amount in _her_ shock.

Melolo’s excitement for him is nothing compared to the reaction he expects from Gramps when he tells him. “Oi, gramps!” The titan Azurda looks down at him with the almost parental expression Rex had many years to grow accustomed to. 

“Back already, Rex?” 

“I’ve got some really great news.” He can hardly contain himself, excitement seeping into his voice and sending jitters throughout his body. Rex bounces on his heels, feeling the excitement of being a kid again.

Azurda raises a grassy eyebrow. “Was the haul worth that much?” 

“Better!” Rex explains how he’d gotten the job, the payment he’d received, how he’d be leaving for it tonight. Everything Azurda needed to know.

“That doesn’t explain a thing! You know nothing about your employers, you took a job without getting any details—”

“Ah, Gramps, you worry too much! I got the important details, I got the advance—”

“There’s a girl, isn’t there?” Azurda says suddenly, and Rex chokes on his words. Figures he’d pick up on such a subtle notion from Rex after years of raising him.

“What?” He stammers, trying to recover before Azurda can notice, but it’s too late. 

“What’s her name?” Azurda says, pouncing on the notion faster than Rex ever thought possible. 

“Th-that’s not important! There’s no girl!” Rex is flustered now, and deals with the situation the only way 15-year-old boys ever know how—denial and avoidance. “Anyways, I’m going to go gear up for the job and meet them at the docks. You can take a nap or something while I’m gone!”

“Rex!” Azurda’s call after the boy falls on deaf ears. He’s already run off back inside the guild, not bothering to look back while he gears up for his adventure. “That boy…”

~

Luck can’t shine down on Rex all the time—when he reports to the Maelstrom, he’s immediately informed that he has night watch, and given several hours, he decides to sleep until then.

He awakes with just enough time before his shift on watch to socialize a bit. He takes the opportunity, finding his curiosity about his employers far too much to not justify a bit of conversation. His eyes glance over Nia in favor of, preferably, someone nicer. He’s certainly not looking for one woman in particular, he just… doesn’t notice Nia standing next to Dromarch. Yeah, that’s it. Must be a subconscious thing.

He finds Pyra on the starboard side, standing next to her Blade. Her cloak is fluttering in the breeze, and she’s put her hood up. In the dim twilight, it’s dark enough to see that the bolts of green trimming her thigh highs practically glow, drawing an uncomfortable amount of attention to legs that really don’t need it.

Architect, help him. 

Rex swallows thickly and approaches only after her Blade takes note of his presence.

“Your name was Rex, right?” She speaks, and he has to remind himself to breathe. “The salvager from Leftheria.”

“Right,” he says, standing beside her. “And you’re… Pyra?”

“Right, Nia must have told you. Sorry she picks on you so much. I think she secretly feels threatened that she’s not the youngest anymore.”

“Ah, it’s fine. Everyone’s got their reasons to act the way they do, after all. Your Blade’s name was…?”

“Sever,” she finishes. Sever nods his head, eyes locked on Rex in a way that almost intimidates him more than the power and beauty personified that stands between them. _Almost._ “He’s not as scary as he looks, I promise. He’s just a bit protective.”

“It’s not every day we see someone who can fend off Pyra,” Sever says. It’s difficult at first for him to recognize that Sever is trying to compliment him. “I look forward to seeing how you handle the work to come.”

“Yeah, thanks.” He feels a bit embarrassed at the sudden praise, then slightly more embarrassed when he’s forced to dismiss the thought that Sever isn’t exactly the one he wanted to hear it from.

Pyra tilts her head to one side. “Was there something you needed, Rex? You were put on night watch tonight, right?” 

“Right, I was wanting to ask you about the job. What exactly is it that we’re…” Rex’s words die when his eyes land a familiar-looking Nopon further up the ship who walks behind a box, apparently hiding. “Pupunin?”

“What?”

“Sorry, I have to go check something out. But it was nice talking to you!”

“Oh, alright. See you around, Rex.”

The blood rushes to his face momentarily—he shakes his head to re-focus. He’s been doing that a lot lately. “Yeah. Y-you too.” He waves to her and walks with purpose towards the box he’d watched the Nopon hide behind, only to see an otherwise empty corner. 

_I could’ve sworn that I saw Pupunin walk here…_ With no Pupunin in sight, Rex sighs and reports to the watchtower for night watch. It’s now, some time later, that he finds himself staring out across the cloud sea with concentration and a little bit of that wonder that’s never quite left him, even after countless hours spent beneath its surface, even after years of watching it.

He notes movement amongst the clouds, and peers through his binoculars, steeling against a sudden breeze that sends goosebumps across the exposed skin of his arms from the cold. “Is that black ship following us?” He’s forced to dismiss the thought almost immediately in light of the faint _clank_ ing behind him.

He turns to look, and it’s Nia standing there, apparently in a significantly less antagonistic mood than in his previous interactions with her. “Ugh, it’s _way_ too cold up here,” she says, almost in disgust, and shrinks away from the wind and into her hood. “My ears’re burning, and I’ve only been out here a few minutes. How can you stand it?”

Rex ignores the chill in favor of the obvious oddity in the situation. “You’re up here? Why?” 

“I’ve got a name, you know—” 

“Nia, isn’t it?” 

Her ears shift her hood, Rex presumes as they twitch in response. He can’t help but think they’re the most honest thing about her expression thus far. “Right. Glad to see you’ve been paying attention.” She walks towards him, filling the empty space next to Rex. “Anyways, they started boozin’ below decks. You should go join them, I can take watch.” 

“Why don’t you join them instead?” 

“It’s not that I hate it,” she says, leaning on the railing and running her fingers through her bangs. “I just… don’t really like it, either.” 

He suppresses a grin, mirroring her and leaning up against the railing. They’re looking out towards the World Tree now, and Rex’s heart swells a little bit at the sight. “Guess it’s a good thing you’re not a salvager, then.” 

“Oi. I’m tryin’ to be nice here.” 

“I’m just saying. Salvager’s code and all. Swim like a fish, and drink like one too.” He holds up a finger. 

She clicks her tongue. “You know, you explained it but it still feels like you’re making fun of me.” 

“Nah, not my intention.” 

“Sure it’s not. I haven’t exactly been nice to you up to this point.” Was she trying to apologize? 

He shakes his head. “It’s alright. I don’t blame you, I am one of the youngest salvagers in Argentum, after all.” 

“Sure seem to like older women, though,” she says, and he coughs. 

“What are you talking about?” The darkness of the night cloaks his blush, which he silently thanks the Architect for. Unfortunately for him, it can’t do anything for his stutter. 

“I saw you talking to Pyra earlier. You’re not exactly inconspicuous, you know.” She laughs when he fails to form a proper response. “Can’t say I blame you. It took me a while to get used to her too.” 

“Used to her?” He echoes. He’s not sure he knows the concept, certainly not with someone like Pyra. 

“Yeah, after a while you learn how to not lose your mind over a body like hers.” 

The realization that she’s not talking about being jealous hits Rex like a rampaging armu. “Y-you—” 

“Oh, come on,” she says before he can finish the thought. “Look at her and tell me you would think anything different if you were a girl.” 

After a moment of consideration, he nods. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” 

“Of course I’m right.” She’s joking around now, grin on her face. 

“How long have you been working with them, anyway?” 

“Jin and Pyra? A month or so. Why?” 

He shrugs. “Just curious. You lot aren’t exactly the most transparent people I’ve worked for. Makes it hard not to wonder about you.” 

“You’re curious, so what you ask is how long I’ve been working with them, not what it is we’re actually doing this job for. You’re a strange one, kid.” 

“My name’s Rex. And for the record, I was getting to that.” 

She pushes her hood back, shaking her head to fix her hair. “It’s just as well, Rex. I couldn’t tell you anyways. Those two haven’t exactly told me what it is we’re doing, yet.” 

“Really? Why’re you working with them if they won’t even tell you what you’re trying to accomplish?” The thought crosses his mind that he’s doing the same, but he brushes it off. Maybe they’re paying Nia even more than he’s getting paid for this job. After all, whatever they need an extra Driver for must be truly fearsome. 

She avoids eye contact. “That’s… complicated. I’m sure they’ll tell me eventually, but for now, I just need to prove myself as trustworthy. I don’t have much of an alternative, anyway.” 

He holds his tongue, sure that what he really wants to say would only push her away, and after he’s worked so hard for her to talk to him like he’s an actual person. “I don’t know your situation, but surely there’s something else you could do other than work for them, hoping you’re not doing anything illegal.” 

She scoffs, although Rex can’t fathom why. “There’s alternatives, but they’re not pretty. I’d rather stay where I am for now.” 

“I don’t get why not, but if that’s where you want to be, I guess I can’t say too much.” He decides to relent. At least for now, it’s not worth pushing back on the breakthroughs he’s making. There’s a friend somewhere in Nia, regardless of their initial interaction. 

“What about you?” 

“Me?” 

“Salvaging isn’t exactly the occupation of choice, and you’re working rather young. Why salvaging? You could’ve been a mercenary or a merchant, or anything in between. But you chose to stick with a job that’s not what I’d call safe or stable.” 

“Well, that’s…” His eyes land on the World Tree rising from the horizon. Its leaves glow faintly against the night sky. They always struck him as extra stars, something to hope for. Somewhere up there is Elysium, the answer to all the wars and fighting down here on Alrest. “It’s stable if you know what you’re doing.” 

“But it must’ve taken you a while to get to the point where you could turn a profit.” 

Rex recalls a titan he and Azurda watched fall into the cloud sea’s depths several days back. The people who used to live on it might have known to evacuate, but he can’t help but think about the animals who couldn’t have done anything and sunk with it. “You know, I’ve never liked war. All those innocent people, getting hurt, and for what? Nothing they couldn’t have settled without resorting to violence. If there’s… a way to reach Elysium, to fix all the world’s problems, I can’t help but think that it’s hidden somewhere beneath our sea of clouds.” 

She snorts. He only feels a bit stupid for thinking she would take him seriously. “Elysium? You really believe in that guff?” 

“Why don’t you?” He counters her mirth with his usual positivity. “With the endless field of green Elysium promises, people could stop fighting. We’d have peace, and security. Happiness. Isn’t a dream like that worth believing in?” 

“But would that be for everyone?” There’s something left unsaid in her words, but he decides not to pry. “Would everyone be able to share in that paradise?” 

“Of course,” he says, shocked at the suggestion that anyone wouldn’t be deserving of a happy life atop the world tree. “No one’s beyond redemption.” 

“You know, kid, I used to think people were pretty terrible by nature.” He nods, sensing her change in mood. He can’t really blame her, not when he’s seen how awful people can be. “But you’re pretty alright.” 

~ 

When Rex awakes, a man’s voice is echoing through his room. After a moment of staring blearily, he gathers that they’ve arrived at the place and he, alongside the other salvagers on his team, are being called to report. He grabs for his helmet and is out the door the moment he registers the words. 

He’s on the deck with the other salvagers in minutes, having gotten into his full salvaging suit faster than he’s ever had to. As the captain of their team speaks, he stands in the back of the group, checking every potential seam and snap to make sure he won’t suffer any sealing issues on his way down. The captain dismisses the salvaging team immediately after he finishes explaining, and Rex obeys, trailing after the others. 

The wind is blustery, if the rain and everyone not on the salvaging team are any indication. People have to shield their eyes with their hands just to see, and not for the first time Rex is grateful for the total coverage the salvaging suit affords him. He may not have any sort of peripheral vision, but at least his eyes aren’t being assaulted by the weather. He steps off the grating shortly after the others, and as always, looks out over the horizon as his body descends toward the cloud sea. 

The plunge is forgiving, and he reaches up and turns on his headlamp once the light of the world above him is officially blocked by the cloud sea. A quick glance around him comforts him as he watches the other salvagers descend, and excitement bubbles up within him at the prospect of finally seeing this ship that was worth shelling out what must’ve been millions of gold for. 

It’s some time before Rex has anything visual to occupy his mind. 450 peds is an incredible distance, so he lets his thoughts roam as the pressure of the cloud sea blankets him and his team members. 

Finally, a few of the salvagers further down begin swimming down with more fervor, and Rex follows their line of sight to see headlamps glinting off ancient, decaying metal, crawling with all sorts of things, from lost items to the rare plant or creature scuttling across its surface. 

As he swims closer to it, flotation device at the ready, Rex notes that the ship doesn’t appear to have any sort of way to attach it to a titan. _How did this thing use to move? Ancient civilizations must have had some crazy technology._ How long had this ship been sitting here, waiting for the moment a team of salvagers would flock to it and cranes would force it from its slumber? 

He sends a wave up to his team members when his part of the job is completed, and tentatively runs a hand over the metal of the ship. Sure, he can’t feel much, what with the thick fabric of his gloves in the way, but he does it anyway, lingering for a moment in appreciation for the feat of engineering laying before him. 

Lightning cracks the sky as Rex resurfaces, and the ship isn’t far behind him. He’s hardly given the chance to take off the extra layer of his salvaging suit when he’s approached by Nia, who has an appreciative smile etched on her face. “Excellent work!” She says. “You’re not half bad, you know that?” 

“Wouldn’t be able to make a living off it if I wasn’t any good, right?” He puffs his chest out, grinning. The teams make a move to roll out, just as Pyra and Jin pass him. 

He’s pointedly trying to focus on anything _other_ than Pyra when Jin stops and turns to him. “You. With us.” 

“Me?” 

“Seriously? You’re going to drag the kid along?” Nia says, and it’s like she lost every ounce of friendliness she’d shown him the previous night. 

“Jin has his reasons, Nia,” Pyra says gently, one hand holding her hood up against the wind with determination. “If he weren’t necessary, we wouldn’t bring him. Don’t worry so much about his age; just focus on his value.” 

Architect, she’s even more beautiful when she’s defending him. Nia can’t come up with a worthy response, it seems, so instead she shoots Rex a glare and they follow the other two in silence. They don’t get far, however, before Rex instinctively stops just moments before the others do. It’s good timing—the door to the ship suddenly flies off, bouncing in the spot Rex might’ve been standing in had he continued walking and crashing into one of the guard rails on the side. The metal bends and he swears he can hear the guard rails crunch under the pressure. 

In the place the door used to be, there’s a furious Lysaat daring anyone to make a move or even a noise. Nia steps in front of Rex confidently, rings already in hand, and adopts a battle stance. “Let me show you what a _Driver_ is capable of, Rex,” she says, and he already burns to show her up. 

Not to be outdone, Rex draws the sword at his waist and joins as he and the group of Drivers launches into battle. His sword cuts shallow, almost pitiful against the onslaught from the others. He sends the sword straight into the space between the lysaat’s shell, as he’s learned to do from years of them coming up with him during his salvaging trips, and immediately pulls it out and scrambles back when Pyra lunges at the lysaat. He almost feels sorry for the poor thing, having been on the receiving end of Pyra’s sword exactly once, but then he’s pushed off the fence when her sword engulfs it in flames. 

Ruthless. _That’s_ the word Rex couldn’t place. She’s utterly, unapologetically ruthless. 

The lysaat lets out a final cry as its body is scorched. The murmur coming from the other people on the ship is just barely audible over the rain— _so that’s the power you get when you become a Driver!_ —and Rex isn’t quite sure if he’s actually hearing someone say it, or if it’s just his thoughts against the backdrop of rain. 

“Let’s go,” Pyra says, sheathing her sword and striding towards the now permanently opened doors of the ancient ship. He watches her go for several moments, breathless, and it’s Nia’s hand on his shoulder that brings him back to Alrest. 

She smirks. “She’s single, you know.” The blush that erupts on Rex’s face is enough satisfaction for her—she bursts out laughing. “Come on, best not keep Pyra or Jin waiting.” 

~ 

The ship is dank when Rex steps inside. The air almost chokes him several feet in from its weight, and he takes a moment to re-orient himself in the dizzyingly thick atmosphere. Strangely enough, he seems to be the only one in the group affected by the humidity—even Nia, who he had been sure would have the worst time, what with her wearing that yellow jumpsuit and all. What kind of training had these three gone through, that they were fine in the humidity even though he was the salvager here? 

Pyra moves at a surprisingly quick clip, her eyes perpetually focused on her goal, although Rex still isn’t quite sure what exactly it is. She’s so quick that he nearly trips multiple times trying to keep up with her, although Jin seems to have no issue. Damn tall people and their long legs. Not for the first time, Rex wishes for his growth spurt to come as he finds himself constantly short of breath and doing more work for the same distance. 

At one point in his never-ending mission to keep up with the group’s unfailing speed, Pyra walks too close to one of the various forms of aggressive wildlife in the ship. It leaps at her, but she slams her sword down on it with enough force that the creature, along with the grating it lands on, both crash to the floor below with cacophonous results. Rex is simultaneously both very glad to be bringing up the rear of this ship investigation and very glad that he’s not going to have to actually _fight_ Pyra anytime soon. 

Rex is given the honor of carrying around an ether cylinder that Pyra picks up and seems to think is useful to their investigation. It proves to be when she uses it to power a control panel, which opens the door to a slimy, shark-like thing much like the ones Rex learned to avoid after horror stories from a more experienced salvager reached his ears. 

Pyra stops a reasonable distance from it, arms crossed. It looks at her almost defiantly, letting out a noise that can only be described as a wet grunt. Rex’s hands are already on his sword when Pyra speaks. “Not going to let us through? …very well.” She grabs for her sword confidently, not breaking the creature’s gaze. “Consider this an act of mercy, then.” 

The creature, much like the lysaat, goes down in no time thanks to the sheer power and skill Jin, Nia, and Pyra display. A stab of envy hits Rex in perfect synchronization with Jin’s killing blow against the creature. Jin slowly removes his sword with cold eyes, and Rex shudders as the creature lets out its final cries. It’s not quite that Rex wants the power, or the coldness that permeates Jin’s every action, but it would be nice, he thinks, to have enough power to be useful to the people he works for. 

He wordlessly follows the others to a door at the end of the room, which is unusually ornate. Perfectly in the center is a raised circle, on which a strange-looking symbol that reminds Rex of a flame has been engraved. “Pyra, look,” Jin says, his voice the least confrontational Rex has ever heard it. 

Pyra steps forward. “There’s no mistaking it,” she says. “Addam’s crest.” 

“Addam’s… crest?” Rex echoes. A strange sense of foreboding washes over him suddenly. “Maybe we shouldn’t be here.” 

“No, this is exactly where we need to be,” Jin says. “This is what we were looking for.” 

“Rex, could you please open this door for us?” Pyra asks. 

“Me? Why can’t any of you do it?” The idea is nothing but strange to him. Is this really what they brought him along for? To open a door? 

Jin appears frustrated but only shakes his head. “You’re Leftherian, aren’t you? That door will only open for one of you.” 

“I don’t really get it, but I guess I’ll open it.” He walks up to the door and surveys it with a watchful eye, curiously pressing a single gloved hand against the crest. To his surprise, it glows blue the moment his hand touches it, the door itself sliding back and out of the way within moments. The foreboding feeling only grows stronger as he steps into the room, which appears untouched by both time and the Cloud Sea itself, save for the strange fog that sits just above the floor. 

The area around his feet glows a faint green each time his foot hits the ground. Sure, green is typically a comforting color, but every step towards the second door in front of him just feels like another red flag. “Wait!” Pyra speaks suddenly. Rex turns to look at her; she’s standing still, mostly focused on Nia, who appears to have rushed forward to follow him. “Open the second door, too, please.” The last person he wants to annoy with his need to know what’s going on is Pyra, so he nods and watches as a second door lights up and hides in response to his touch. 

The fog diffuses before his eyes, and the room he walks into is mostly empty, save for a sword and a tank in the center of the room. The sword is jet black and appears dormant. There is a crystal embedded just above the hilt that glints against what little light is in the room, like shining obsidian. 

He’s vaguely aware of the sound of the others walking into the room behind him, but his eyes follow the direction the sword’s hilt points, to the tank barely large enough to contain a muscular man who appears to be sleeping. Just above his crossed arms sits a purple core crystal that mirrors the one in the sword. _Wait… he’s a Blade. What’s a Blade doing down here? Why isn’t his core crystal blue like Blades usually have?_

As he stares up at the mysterious man, the sense of foreboding he’d felt fades away in tandem with a soft purple glow that alights on his face. He looks back down at the sword, which appears to be the source; it’s glowing brighter every second, and before he realizes it, he’s reaching to touch the glowing crystal. 

“Rex, don’t touch that!” Pyra’s words are no deterrent for a man entranced by a sword. He closes the gap, and the crystal responds to his touch much in the way the doors had—it begins glowing with more intensity immediately. The purple washes over the room until it’s white hot, but upon further consideration, the explosion of white and purple at the edges of his vision might have something more to do with the sword that’s been plunged through his back. 

“If you knew what was coming, you’d be thanking me,” Jin says. All Rex hears, however, is Pyra’s voice repeating _consider this an act of mercy_ at the back of his mind as the glow, along with the rest of his vision, fades. 


	2. Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes are just completely incapable of not almost dying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for the feedback on the first chapter! This is the first bit of my writing that I've had the guts to let people read in four years, so I appreciate the reception! ^^
> 
> Nia's never met a tree she didn't want to climb, and Malos punches anything that might put a crunch in the gang's plans.
> 
> Thanks to Ajur for helping! This would be a lot more tense without your help :P

“Jin, what the hell?” Nia’s voice is nothing short of horrified as Rex crumples to the floor. Jin is unaffected, adjusting his mask and sheathing his sword calmly. Pyra strides past the corpse— _Architect, he’s already dead_ —and pulls down the tank. “Why did you kill him?”

“It’s a shame,” Pyra agrees as she helps lower the tank to Jin. “I suppose it was for the best, however.” 

“For the _best_? What’s ‘for the best’ about killin’ an innocent kid? He was fifteen!” She clenches her fists until they shake. Dromarch tries to calm her, but she's unreceptive and only glances at him in acknowledgement.

“We were going to kill him anyway,” Jin says.

"Maybe so, but perhaps we should have warned her," Pyra says. She considers her words for a moment, then walks over to Rex’s body. “If it upsets you so much, Nia, then call the Monoceros. We can make sure his body gets sent back to Leftheria, but we can’t un-kill him.” Nia doesn't reply. 

“Nia?”

“I’ll call the Monoceros,” she says finally, fists clenched. 

“Thank you.” Pyra watches Nia stalk off. When she's a reasonable distance away from the others, Pyra returns to her work. Nia is left to steep in outrage in near peace, excepting for Dromarch, who quietly does his best to work her through her shock. Aside from him, the room is silent. Silent like the heartbeat of a boy who just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people.

Nia wants to throw up.

~

Green. The world surrounding him as his eyes open is nothing but green, at least until he gets his face out of the grass. His chest aches, although he can't quite figure out why. He pushes himself up, taking in the area around him.

He’s sitting in a field at the foot of a gentle slope. At the top of the slope is a tree, under which someone is silhouetted against a cloudless sky. They appear to be the only person around, unless he wants to venture into the line of trees some distance behind him in hopes of finding other human life. From somewhere in the distance, a bell echoes methodically. It’s almost eerie, how it shows no sign of slowing. He’d go mad, listening to that every day of his life.

He approaches the person on the hill, finding that they’re really his only choice for figuring out, well, everything. “Um, excuse me?” 

Now that he’s a little closer to the person, he can see that he’s a rather muscular (and honestly intimidating) man. He's got a core crystal in his chest when he turns, although it's strange that it's purple instead of blue. Where has he seen a purple core crystal before? He should definitely remember such a strange Blade, yet... 

“It’s nice to meet you,” he says. “I’d tell you my name, but… I can’t seem to remember much of anything right now. Do you… know where we are?” For some reason he can’t place, the strange Blade is strikingly familiar. Then again, he can’t really seem to place much of anything in his mind right now.

“You’re Rex,” he says. Rex accepts it as fact, because really, he has nothing to dispute it, and it doesn’t _feel_ incorrect. “You’re probably disoriented." 

Disoriented doesn’t even begin to cover it. He feels hollow where the ache in his torso emanates from, and the longer he looks at this place, the more unfamiliar it seems. As if he _should_ know where this place is, but it’s just escaped him completely. “Yeah, I guess I am. Have we met before? I know you, I think.”

“My name is Malos. We’ll get through this quicker if you just let me talk and ask any other questions when I’m done.” 

Seems reasonable. Even if it weren’t, Rex gets the feeling that it’s better for him to just listen. “This is Elysium, or a reconstruction of it at least. It was created from my memories. I don’t know how you found me on that ship, but shortly after we came into contact, you were murdered by Jin. Stabbed directly through the heart. I can—”

“ _Murdered!?_ ” Suddenly, the hollow ache makes sense to Rex; his hand flies to his chest, where a scar-like ridge raises up. Now, he distinctly remembers seeing a sword, Jin's sword, emerging from his chest as if he'd been cutting through fabric. Memories flash through his head, causing him to sink to his knees in horror. Memories of the sword are too vivid and too dull all at once, and Rex is vaguely aware of the fact that he’s saying something. His mind is racing too much to recognize his own words. 

Malos waits for Rex’s words to slow and his breathing to steady before he speaks. “Are you done? Because I wasn’t.” All Rex can do is stare in silence, hand still on the scar. “Stop making such a big deal about it. I can bring you back to life by giving you half of my lifeforce, but I’ll need you to promise me something.”

Rex has to force himself to respond. “You’re the Blade we found in the ship, aren’t you?” The man nods. “And you can… bring me back?” Another nod. “…What do you want me to do?”

“Take me to the Elysium in Alrest." 

“Elysium? In Alrest?” His head swims with the realization that his dreams could be more than dreams. Now that he’s not quite so overwhelmed by his own death, he looks around Elysium with wonder. He stands back up, taking in the area and committing it to memory.

“At the top of the world tree.” He nods. 

Rex considers the idea. There's no reason for him not to trust Malos, and he'd be lying to himself if he said that both reaching Elysium and not being dead were very attractive concepts. "I'll do it. Let's reach Elysium together." 

“Good. Now, you’re going to have to touch my core crystal. If you can reach it, I mean.” He grins, and it’s oddly comforting to know that this guy can actually joke around and smile. He doesn’t exactly seem like the type. (He could, however, do without being picked on for his height. It’s not his fault that he hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet.) 

Rex nods and reaches up to the purple crystal, with little trouble thanks to Malos leaning down a bit. He recoils when the crystal begins glowing immediately. It’s a bit too similar to the way the sword reacted to his touch, and for a moment, he’s almost expecting to be killed all over again.

The light overtakes him again, growing so bright that it's almost dark. The ache in his chest ebbs away as the light from Malos's core focuses itself on it, and he gets one last glimpse of Elysium before he faints.

~

Nia feels hollow. The deaths of people she deals with after joining the ranks of Torna aren’t exactly a new experience, but before, she was willing to believe that they'd all deserved it for one reason or another. Willing to believe that even if she opposed it, she really had no other choice in the matter, and besides, most humans would never bother to defend her in the opposite situation. It had just seemed foolish to defend those who would leave her behind.

Rex wouldn't have left her behind. The thought runs through her head too many times as she follows the others out of the ship. Nia knows Pyra and her... other half are strong, but she never expected to see her carry that capsule and the man inside on one shoulder and casually drape a corpse over it. She’s hardly even out of breath.

Nia doesn't realize she's being spoken to until Dromarch nudges her hand. "My lady, you're being addressed."

"Sorry, what? I wasn't listening." She tries to sound calm, tries to sound like things are fine, but her voice still sounds more like cold steel than anything. 

"Are you still mad?" Pyra asks.

Nia's ears flick back. "Of course I'm mad, Rex didn't..."

"Maybe that was a stupid question. You can deal with your emotions later. Or, perhaps, you could do what I asked and deal with the bystanders.” There’s Pyra’s aggression again. Sometimes, Nia swears that she’s just letting her other half talk for her.

"D-deal with the bystanders? You don't mean..." Architect, her powers are for healing, not slaughtering people who just wanted to make some gold to support themselves with. It's not like she can't, but... 

"Nia..." Jin's tone is one of warning as he decides to step into the conversation, but he never finishes his thought. The capsule Pyra carries begins sucking in the light around it at the same moment that something starts materializing near Rex's hand. For a second, Nia has a shred of hope that his hand is twitching, but if it is, it stops when Pyra yells for Sever to move and _launches_ both the capsule and the boy over his head, landing the two a good many feet away.

Nia can't help but be overwhelmed with shock. Surely that can't have been easy, but instead of showing any substantial exertion from flinging what must have been several hundred pounds a reasonable distance away, Pyra stands with her eyes trained on the capsule and the boy. The former is now enshrouded in darkness, which is eating away at everything it touches.

"Jin," Pyra says, holding a hand up to the man. He stops just as his fingers brush the hilt of his sword. "Let _her_ handle this." 

Nia watches as Pyra gives way to her other half in a wash of light. Where previously Pyra stood, Mythra is poised to attack, now garbed in pure white instead of Pyra’s fiery red. Pyra rarely removes the cloak Mythra discards, but now that she has, Nia can see the armor plate fastened across her chest, covering a core crystal she’s never seen, only heard of.

Light flashes from near where Rex's corpse landed, and moments later, he's no longer a corpse. "Great," Mythra says. "Now he's gone and made himself the Aegis's Driver, and we'll have to kill him all over again."

Nia's not sure what Mythra means by the Aegis's Driver, but she knows by now that if Jin is standing down and Mythra is taking over for Pyra, there’s not much question about their determination to kill this boy. 

As Rex steadies himself on his own two feet, the capsule explodes. It had been melting against the darkness covering it, but apparently that wasn’t enough, as there's a column of darkness reaching into the sky. It arcs downwards, onto an area overlooking the deck. The bystanders have taken this as their cue to escape, unsure what's really going on but knowing they don't want to be a part of it. That’s probably smart. Nia kind of wishes she could run, too.

When the column of darkness clears, the Blade stands, rolling his shoulders casually. Nia wonders if he knows the situation he's in, or that he’s perhaps incurred the wrath of the two scariest people Nia’s ever met.

At some point in the focus on the Blade's frankly dramatic entrance, Rex has fully regained his bearings and now holds a sword that glints black in the rain. "Isn't it pretty underhanded to stab someone in the back?" He looks at least a little bit pissed off, and Nia doesn’t blame him. She’d be pretty mad if she was suddenly stabbed for one small transgression, too. 

More importantly, how is Rex alive? Jin’s never failed to kill anyone he intended to before.

"Rex, keep your guard up," the Blade says.

"Got it."

"You... can't be," Mythra growls, glancing between Rex and the Blade. "Malos, you should've just stayed asleep and made things easier for everyone. You're a clever hider, though. We went through a lot to track you down."

Malos looks down on Mythra in more ways than one, thanks to his vantage point. "And here I thought you were merciful enough to let me sleep for a while longer. Unfortunately for you, I'm not interested in helping you just because you found me, Mythra."

She clicks her tongue and saunters toward him. "That _is_ unfortunate. I'd hoped we could make this easy from here on out."

“Sorry, but we’re not really interested in just letting you trample whoever you want without a fight!” Rex is already sprinting into battle as he speaks, and Architect, he's going to get himself killed rushing in like that—

He locks blades with Mythra, and for a moment, they're in a tense stalemate. At least, until Mythra makes a swipe at him. He virtually dances around it, twisting to go after Mythra again.

Nia can't watch this. "Mythra, leave him! He's a kid, you've got more important things to focus on!" 

"Don't be foolish, Nia," Mythra responds. "This kid is just going to make everything difficult!" She punctuates her sentence with a well-placed hit that sends Rex staggering backwards a few feet.

He's otherwise unfazed. He simply pushes back, and between the two, there's a constant flurry of blows where neither party is quite landing on the other. Mythra passes off her blade to Sever, who cackles as he unleashes a devastating amount of ether that might actually kill the boy. 

When the ether clears, Malos is standing between Rex and Mythra, holding up a protective shield of ether with a glare. "Thanks." Rex preps himself to leap right back into the fray.

"Thank me when we're done with this," Malos says, posture tense and perhaps a bit terrible. Nia's back aches just looking at it; he's somehow leaning forward and back at the same time. 

In the time it took Nia to note Malos’s terrible posture, Mythra has successfully sent Rex’s body flying and disarmed him. His sword lands dangerously close to the edge of the ship, and he ends up several feet away. If he survives this, he’s going to have one hell of a collection of wounds to tend to. 

He tries to push himself up to go pick up his sword, but not before Mythra reaches him, slashing wildly. Nia cringes when Mythra cuts into his arm enough to draw blood. Where’s Malos? What’s he doing while his Driver is—

There he is. He’s locked in a scuffle with Sever, who is remarkably good at holding his attention. He seems to recognize the danger his Driver is in, but Sever refuses to let him go. 

Rex has been forced to back up equally dangerously close to the edge of the ship as his sword, thanks to Mythra’s insistent attacks. She hasn’t even let him get to his feet. 

Nia _can’t_ watch this. She’s on Dromarch’s back and fast approaching Mythra and Rex before she quite registers it herself. Dromarch sends a burst of ether at Mythra, enough to distract her and force her to back away from the boy. 

They take the opening, placing themselves between Mythra and Rex. Dromarch growls wordlessly, leaving the talking to Nia. “Leave him, Mythra. You’re tryin’ to kill an innocent kid!” 

“Kill him? No, Nia, I’m _helping_ him,” Mythra says. “The longer this boy lives as the Aegis’s Driver, the more he’s going to wish you’d have let me kill him, I guarantee you that much. I’m just trying to be merciful.”

“ _Merciful_?” She has the audacity to claim mercy in a situation like this? “You can’t be serious. What’s merciful about murdering a kid?”

“He’s young, but he can fight back. If he were _just_ a kid, then sure, I’d let him live.”

“Then let him live.” This is the most conviction she’s spoken with in what feels like years. “Can’t you see that you don’t need to kill him?”

“Nia, I’m starting to get tired of all of your mindless backtalk,” Mythra says. She moves at a speed that rivals Jin’s, and there’s no time to respond before the flat side of her sword is pressed into Nia’s shoulder as a warning. “You don’t even have the first clue who you’re defending.” With a single swipe of the sword, Nia’s sent flying off the ship. Rex’s sword joins her in her descent, and she barely manages to close her fingers around it as she falls.

The Cloud Sea races towards her. She never did like the way it feels to swim in it, but it seems like she’s got no other choice.

 _Or not_ , she thinks when her body lurches to a stop thanks to the sudden grip on her arm. She cries out at the immediate effects: every joint in her arm, from her wrist to shoulder, blossoms with pain. Her wrist, especially, protests with a sickening noise. It’s the only thing keeping Rex from dropping her, but she’d be a bit more grateful if it didn’t almost definitely break from the stress of the job. 

“Rex, you—” She hisses when she slips a little bit. Every shift, breath, and movement only seems to worsen the pain. 

“Hold on, Nia, I’ve got you,” he says. 

She tries to grab his wrist, but the movement of her fingers immediately floods her vision with tears. “I-I can’t grab on. My wrist is—” She never finishes her sentence. The grappling hook that hold Rex and Nia stutters, and the pain is so unbearable that she blacks out a little bit. With horror, her vision clears to show her the Monoceros as it pulls up to the side of the ship, guns at the ready. _Can’t say I had a nice run_.

She can hardly comprehend what’s happening anymore. Maybe it’s not worth it to hold on to her consciousness and watch the massacre that’s about to unfold. In fact, when the guns move their aim to target them, specifically, she's convinced of this. If Rex can get them out of this alive, then he can do it without her help, anyway. She lets go of her last shred of consciousness.

~

Malos awakes with a groan. Azurda had some damn good timing, swooping in when he did. If not for them, he’s not sure he’d be waking up at all. The first thing he notices is that everything is very green. The next noteworthy thing is the Gormotti sitting nearby, pulling the top of her jumpsuit off to reveal a dark undershirt and one seriously fucked up arm. 

She appears to be the girl who stepped in during his and Rex’s fight against Mythra earlier. But didn’t she have a Blade with her…? The Blade is nowhere in sight, leaving only the girl. Come to think of it, he should probably say something before she finishes undressing herself. 

“Oh, you’re awake,” she says when he pushes himself up and stretches. “Malos, right?” 

“Yeah. You’re…” It's only now he realizes he never got her name. Not like there was time, anyhow.

“Nia. Can I ask what happened after I passed out? I wasn't expecting to wake up at all." She runs some pond water over her arm, hissing when it seeps into several small cuts. He assumes they're from the fall, although he’s surprised that they’re not worse. They hardly count as scratches. She appears to be washing off the blood, but she should probably be more worried about what might be in that water.

“After Rex grabbed you, Azurda flew in and got us out of that situation. He got hurt pretty bad by that ship that showed up. Barely made it here before crash landing. Not sure where he landed, though, or Rex for that matter.” There’s no sign of them, except for some messed up trees where he figures Azurda must have had a rough landing. 

“With any luck, he’s with Dromarch. Mythra said Rex was your Driver now, can’t you sense him? Dromarch’s always been able to find me.” 

Right. Rex is his Driver now. He focuses, and can indeed sense the general direction his Driver is in. It's been a while since he’s had a Driver to be separated from, let alone had a need to track him down. “They’re moving. Before you try to go looking for your Blade, were you wanting to give that arm any more attention? Not sure what happened to it, but that doesn’t look great.” 

“When Rex grabbed me. Arms weren’t really meant to be the only thing between you and drowning in the Cloud Sea, especially not that fast.” She finishes tying off the top part of her jumpsuit. “It’s just dislocated a bit, and I think bruised from the landing. The cuts won't be an issue. If I can find Dromarch I can heal myself, so there's not much need to worry about it.” 

A ‘bit’ might be something of an understatement in reference to her dislocation. Malos is no expert, but he’s pretty sure that's her bones creating strange lumps, and she’s messed up at every part of the arm. The wrist is completely purple, and bruises crawl from her wrist to under her tank top.

She pulls off her glove with a wince. Father, she can hardly even do that without looking like she’s about to cry. “Then let’s find your Blade sooner rather than later. Come on.”

“I can stay here while you look,” she says. Is she stupid? Like hell he’s leaving some tiny girl in an unknown forest with an arm she can hardly move and no way to defend herself. 

“Did I make it seem like it was an option? Come on, Nia, you can’t seriously think you can fend for yourself out here.” She’s lucky they haven’t been attacked by something already. 

"I'm not entirely defenseless, you know." She gestures to the row of small knives attached to her belt. He's not impressed.

"You're going to defend yourself with one arm and a set of filet knives?" Seriously, what is she thinking? She's either really stupid, or she’s got some reason to keep from coming with him. If it's the latter, well, he'll figure it out soon enough.

She finally relents when she realizes that there's nothing she can say to change his mind. "Alright, so which way are we going, then?"

He leads the way to a bridge, making a point to avoid any monsters more for Nia’s sake than his own. They're forced to stop at the giant tree that lays across the bridge, obstructing any hopes of moving forward. Rex is just on the other side of it, and an unfamiliar voice is with him. He assumes it’s Nia’s Blade, but he doesn’t bother asking.

“…We could try to climb it?” Nia suggests. "I don't see any way around it, and if they climbed over we'd just have to go back across to get out of here."

“Can you even move your arm?” She doesn't respond. He shrugs his shoulders, feeling his power rush to life in his fingertips. A tree is nothing he can't handle. “Everyone stand back a second.” He raises his voice so hopefully the two standing on the other side can hear him.

“What are you going to do, throw it?” She sounds like she’s joking, but he gets the feeling that she thinks he would actually be able to throw the thing. His solution is a bit more, say, destructive. 

“Just stand clear. You don't want to know what happens if someone gets caught in this.” His tone is enough to convince her. She takes several steps back, and he immediately pulls his fist back and punches the tree. Nia watches in awe as his power covers washes over it and the wood crumbles away. Moments later, the tree trunk has been reduced to mere splinters that fall into the Cloud Sea below.

“Malos! Nia! Good to see you! What, er, what happened to the tree just now…?” Rex says when the dust clears. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Malos says. “It’s an extension of my powers.”

“Right.” Rex’s eyes drift to Nia’s arm, and he jumps slightly at the sight. “Nia, is your arm okay? That doesn’t look great.”

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Can't really do much with it right now, but it'll be healed up soon enough. Just need to get somewhere safe, pop some stuff back into place, and wait it out."

"Don't suppose you know how we'd go about getting out of here? Dromarch says you used to live here, so..." 

Nia frowns. "We're pretty close to Gormott's capital," she says. She climbs onto Dromarch's back without a word between either of them. "If we stay here long enough, we'll be swallowed up by the Cloud Sea. I can take you to Torigoth, if you'll follow me." 

"My lady, please consider resting first. Your arm..." Dromarch does his best to look up at her. At least her Blade has sense.

"Say, what happened to that big guy that saved us, by the way?" Nia appears unwilling to listen to reason. 

"Are you talking about me?" A familiar voice comes from Rex's helmet, and moments later a tiny head pops out. 

"Azurda, what...?" That can't seriously be Azurda. 

"Good to see you again, Malos," the titan says. "Have you been keeping well?"

"What happened to you?" He cuts straight to the chase; small talk can wait for when they have more information.

"Patience is a virtue, Malos," he says. “We can discuss everything once we’ve found somewhere to rest. After all, there’s much more to discuss than my secrets to looking young.”

Patience his ass, clearly _something_ has gone wrong or Azurda wouldn’t look like an actual infantile titan. Waiting only draws out the inevitable.

“So then, we start walking towards the capital, you said Torigoth? And once it gets dark, we’ll rest for the night,” Rex says. “When we stop to rest, we can get everyone up to speed on, well, everything that’s happened since yesterday. Although, Nia, are you sure you’re okay to keep going?” 

Malos can see why he asks—it looks better than when he last saw it, but there’s an uncomfortable amount of swelling and the skin is still bruised where it isn’t starkly pale. He gets the impression that Nia doesn’t have her arms in the sun very often. The thought crosses his mind that the scrapes from earlier appear to be totally gone now. Maybe he’s still a bit off from five hundred years of rest, but honestly, he doubts even that’s enough to start hallucinating.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she says. She shifts uncomfortably, grabbing on to part of Dromarch’s mane and nodding to him. He walks past Rex and sits patiently. “Let’s go, it’s already starting to get dark and we want to find a good place to stop sooner rather than later.” Couldn’t she not move it only a few minutes ago? Could she even move her fingers earlier?

He can worry about Nia’s poorly hidden secrets later. For now, the others have started off into the woods, so he follows them closely and keeps an eye out for anything dangerous.

Nia stops at the head of a slope, which ends abruptly in what appears to be the trunk of a tree. Honestly, she’s lucky she’s got Rex and Malos with her. She’s somehow managed to catch the attention of fifteen separate creatures since leaving the bridge, and she’d be dead with the state her arm is in. 

“We’re going to have to climb up here to make it to the upper level,” she says, and Malos gives her a look that he likes to think clearly reads _what the hell are you thinking you can’t climb that_. If she notices, she chooses to ignore it in favor of burying her hands in Dromarch’s mane even tighter. It’s easily a thirty foot climb, and it’s not like someone can carry her up while climbing at the same time. “It’s getting dark, so we can set up camp at the halfway point.”

He studies the tree she’s talking about. There _is_ a spot large enough for the five of them to camp for the night that appears to be mostly devoid of anything that might be willing to attack them when they settle down, but it’s still halfway up the tree.

At least Rex is apparently capable of seeing reason. “Nia, are you sure you—"

“Dromarch?” Nia looks at him questioningly, ignoring all the _reasonable_ members of this band of travelers in favor of some form of largely unspoken communication with her Blade. 

He bows his head briefly. “Are you ready, my lady?” She makes an affirmative noise, and he latches onto the side of the tree with his claws. In what must be only a few minutes, he climbs to the middle ledge with Nia clinging to his back and pulls himself up as the three on the ground simply stare at them in something like shock.

_This girl is somehow both stupider and smarter than I gave her credit for._

Nia and Dromarch look over the ledge moments later. “Well, are you coming or not? We’ve not got all night, and the three of you have some explaining to do once we get the fire going.”

Malos shares a look with Rex, who’s still too shocked at Nia’s problem solving to speak. “Come on,” Malos says, walking to the side of the tree and studying it for a good spot to start climbing. “The sooner we start climbing this thing, the sooner we can all get some answers.”

~

The fire crackles as Rex and Malos finish their part on updating everyone. Rex is glad that it’s dark now, even if it means they have to camp in a forest instead of someplace safer. Now that there’s less light and it’s colder, it’s harder to see Nia’s messed up arm. He suppresses a shudder at the thought of it, the way her skin glared with angry, sprawling bruises. He almost wants to apologize to her; after all, she got those when he grabbed her, didn’t she?

They’d hunted down a few smaller creatures for food, and with Dromarch’s help, they’d identified some wild plants that were safe to eat and cook over the fire. Dromarch had been the most helpful in getting enough food for everyone, while Nia was insistent on screening every piece of wood Rex or Malos collected before adding it to the pile of firewood. She’d claimed that certain leaves could kill them if they burnt them and inhaled the smoke in any capacity. (Rex didn’t really believe her claim, but it was better to be safe than sorry.)

Malos leans back on his elbows, shifting to make himself comfortable. “I should ask. How much do you actually know about me, Rex?” he asks. 

Rex doesn’t quite understand the question. “What do you mean? We just met yesterday.” Was he supposed to have heard of Malos before?

Gramps flutters up and sits on Rex’s shoulder. “Rex doesn’t know much about the events of the Aegis War, if that’s your concern. In fact, most stories about the Aegis are more obscure among non-Drivers.”

“The Aegis War? That big war 500 years ago?” Rex tilts his head. He doesn’t much like the thought of war. Too many innocent people dying for it _not_ to leave a bad taste in his mouth. “Can’t say I know much about it, no.”

Malos sighs, although Rex can’t fathom why. Did he say something wrong?

“Five hundred years ago, when Mythra set out to destroy Alrest, a man named Addam awakened Malos to stop her,” Gramps says. “Unfortunately, there were many casualties, and three continents were destroyed in the heat of battle. Addam and his allies barely managed to quell Mythra’s fury.”

“After everything quieted, I talked with Addam and decided the best way to keep her from achieving her goals was to keep her from getting to me,” Malos says. “Her core’s not whole, and she can’t restore it by herself. There’s maybe two ways to fix it, and both of them require my cooperation to pull off.”

Rex grimaces. “So, if I hadn’t woken you up…” Maybe he shouldn’t be thinking about the fact that there would be no danger if not, inadvertently, for him.

“I believe it was for the better that you were there, Rex,” Dromarch says, lifting his head only barely to speak so as not to disturb Nia’s position. She’d asked Malos to help her pop the displaced joints back into place earlier, but it doesn’t seem to have helped much, if the way she winces every time her arm shifts is a good indicator. “Without your presence, my lady and I would likely still be among their ranks, and they’d have Malos to achieve their goals with.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Rex smiles. “Thanks. By the way, Nia, what happened to Pyra? I didn’t see her on the ship after I…” The thought of his own death sends chills down his spine in the worst way. He doesn’t want to finish his sentence.

“Who the hell is Pyra?” Malos raises an eyebrow.

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t know much, Rex,” she says. “Pyra’s like… Mythra’s weakened form, I think. They never told me much, but Mythra never stays like that for long before going back to just being Pyra. I’ve seen her twice before, and only because she was in a hurry. Honestly, it’s a miracle any of us managed to survive her.” 

“So she’s like… two girls in a single body? How does that even work?”

“It’s more likely that Pyra is an extension of Mythra’s powers,” Gramps says.

“Can’t imagine she _wouldn’t_ try something like that to hide, since the whole world must have known what Mythra looked like after everything that happened. I could probably pull that off, if I needed to and had the time to figure it out.”

“If everything we needed to talk about has been covered, might I suggest we get some rest?” Gramps says. Rex can’t help but agree. His body aches from the fight and the climb, and it’ll take him quite some time to get comfortable with the bruises he incurred in the heat of battle. 

“Yeah. I’m exhausted,” Rex says. Nia and Dromarch agree as well, although Malos seems a bit more reluctant to head to sleep.

“Something wrong?” Rex asks him.

Malos only shakes his head. “I’ve been asleep for 500 years, I’m just not that tired,” he explains when Rex only stares at him incredulously. “You should rest, I’ll keep watch.”

It’s enough to satisfy Rex, who nods and shifts himself to find a comfortable spot on the ground. It’s difficult, with rocks pressing into tender spots no matter how he lays, but eventually, the fatigue overpowers the discomfort. He falls into a light, fitful sleep.

~

Rex wakes up feeling no more rested than he had before. As he stretches in the sunlight, he tries to shake off the nightmares of a volff-like man with a sword watching him. Every muscle in his body complains in protest. He envies Nia, who’s coming to and pushing herself up from where she laid snuggled up to Dromarch all night. She must have had no problems getting comfortable.

Nia yawns with her whole body, stretching both arms and both legs in tandem with her elongated breath. “Mornin’,” she says at the tail end of her yawn, rolling her neck lazily. She speaks quietly, noting that Malos, at some point, had apparently gone to sleep. Every so often, he shifts or twitches, never quite settling peacefully.

“How’s your arm?” Rex asks. He pulls the outer parts of his salvager suit on, having removed them for better comfort over the night.

She grins, “Much better.” To make her point, she extends the arm in question. Rex immediately cringes at the thought, but she doesn’t even wince at the movement. 

After Malos helped her last night, there’s no more weird bumps where bone presses against skin and shouldn’t. What bruises haven’t already faded appear to vanish before his eyes, but surely that’s just a trick of the light, with the way the sunlight dances through the trees.

“I’ve always been a fast healer,” she explains as Malos begins to stir. Rex feels a pang of guilt for waking him—maybe they should have walked a little further away so he could sleep longer.

It’s too late for maybes, though. Malos pushes himself to his feet, glare etched on his face but aimed at no one in particular.

“Sorry, Malos. We didn’t wake you up, did we?” Rex asks. Malos looks at him in silence for a moment that stretches into what feels like a year.

“No, I was awake,” he says finally. “We should get moving soon anyway.”

“Did you… did you sleep okay?” 

“Didn’t,” Malos grunts. 

“Oh,” he says. “I’m sorry to hear that. If it helps, I didn’t sleep great either.” There’s several moments of painful silence as Malos considers Rex’s attempts at consoling him, then he merely nods at him in acknowledgement.

“Let’s get moving.”

“Okay,” Nia says. “Everyone ready to go?” She’s leaned against the tree trunk they’ve got to climb to make it out of the lower level, having made the smart decision to take Dromarch and avoid the awkward conversation Rex is trying to have. Five years of working, and he can salvage everything but a conversation, apparently.

When the others are ready, she starts climbing the tree with scary precision, hardly bothered by anything like the problems Rex had trying to climb the other tree last night. Malos doesn’t follow Rex when he prepares himself for the climb.

“Is everything alright, Malos?” He asks, stopping at the base of the tree. Malos doesn’t respond, only watches Nia climb like she’s unbothered by the exertion. “Malos?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing. Come on, let’s get moving.” He brushes past Rex, beginning the climb without another word. Rex sighs and turns his attention back to the tree, not thrilled about the climb he faces.

Everyone else makes it to the top with a minimum of slips or struggles. Not for the first time, Rex is grateful for his gloves, especially now that he knows what it feels like to lose all strength past his elbow and barely be able to hold on. If not for the spikes in his boots, he might have broken a leg. Malos has to pull him up at the top, and Rex nearly collapses once he gets on solid ground. 

Malos scoffs. “We’re going to have to work on your climbing strength if we’re going to make it to Elysium.”

“Don’t make fun of me, it’s not like there’s a lot of climbing involved with salvaging!” It’s true; the Cloud Sea isn’t exactly resistant to swimming through, and he had a crane to haul things up from its bed. The most strength required is in stuff like prying boxes open and carrying things between the port and central exchange. Climbing, however, is a full-body exercise, and not one he’s ever thought to train for.

He frowns. Sure, he didn’t have any reason to really be prepared for this kind of exertion, but it still stings that he seems to be the only one affected by the climb. Nia waits at an overlook at the end of the path, idly patting Dromarch’s head, but even from here, Rex can see that she’s perfectly fine, if not slightly out of breath.

After several minutes of sitting on the ground and trying to catch his breath, Rex walks to the overlook, where Malos has joined Nia in waiting for Rex.

The sight of the sprawling, verdant plains is enough to take Rex’s breath away again. He’d thought the forest had been lush, but the plains immediately outshine it. In the distance, he can see a vibrant-looking town.

“That’s Torigoth,” Nia said, nodding to it. “Been a while since I’ve been back here.”

“Is that where you’re from?” Rex asks. Nia chooses not to answer.

“If you’re ready to go, then I’ll take you there. After that, I’m afraid you’re on your own.” 

Rex glances at her. “You’re gonna leave us?” 

“Well, yeah, thought it was pretty obvious why I can’t stick around.” 

“Apparently not,” Malos says. ‘Apparently not’ is right—he can’t see any reason for them not to stick together. Strength in numbers is important, after all, but he can’t force Nia to do anything.

“Can’t make you stay if you don’t want to, but you can travel _with_ us, you know.” Rex leans against the fence, legs still shaking from the climb.

Nia doesn’t respond. Instead, Dromarch breaks the silence. “My lady, if everyone is able, we should get going to avoid the rain.” He’s right that it looks like it’s going to rain; angry clouds stretch across the far horizon and threaten bad weather at any moment.

“Let’s get going, then,” she says, straightening and following the slope downwards. “We’ll want to keep moving once we reach the plains, you _don’t_ want to know what happens to people who aren’t careful out there.”

Something in the way she says it convinces Rex that his best option is to just accept her words and follow her. She has a guarded look about her, one he’s not sure comes from the thought of whatever monster’s out there. It takes all his effort not to trip over his own feet thanks to his shaky legs, anyhow, so he focuses on that instead of prying further into something Nia’s clearly unwilling to talk about.

For all her confidence in navigation, Nia seems keen on taking the most winding route possible to Torigoth. Or rather, she’d been making a straight path for the city, then suddenly decided to change directions like she’d seen something.

“Couldn’t we just walk straight there?” Malos asks impatiently when she ducks around another giant tree and leads them underneath a rather impressive tree root.

“Trust me, I’m not leading you three around just to waste time. That bird you saw flying around back there could kill any of us just as easily as you breathe.” True, Rex had seen a bird, but her claims seem a bit exaggerated. “More importantly, keep an eye out for—”

“My lady!” Dromarch says suddenly, ears flicking. Hers flick too moments later, and her eyes go wide. She mounts Dromarch without a second thought. 

“We need to run.” The gravitas to her tone is all Rex needs to prepare himself to bolt. Whatever they’d heard, it’s enough to instill fear in Nia. Dromarch leads them along the side of the cliff with searching eyes. “Come on, where is the—”

Rex can’t help but ask about the situation. “Nia, not to distract here, but what exactly are we running from?” Whatever it is, it’s nowhere in sight, at least not yet. 

She hisses, now frantically looking for something on the wall. “Do you see a little cave anywhere nearby? I swear there used to be one here. We need to hide there immediately. There’s no way you can outrun him.”

“Clearly there’s danger,” Malos says, “wouldn’t it be better for you to actually tell us who “he” is?”

“Rotbart,” she says. 

“Rotbart?” Rex repeats. Just when he thinks Nia might be a little bit paranoid, he notices the shadow at the other end of the small valley. Obscuring the light is the largest gogol Rex has ever seen, and not by any small margin. Rotbart is easily the size Gramps used to be or larger, and his hand large enough to crush all of them in a single fist.

“Come on! I can’t find the cave, we have to make a run for it _now_.” 

Rex and Malos both nod.

“Hold on, Gramps,” Rex says, bolting moments after Dromarch and Malos do. He severely regrets not asking to take more time to let his legs rest. _Don’t think, just follow Nia and Dromarch. Run as fast as your legs can handle._

Instinct isn’t enough to protect him when he hears the padding of monstrous feet chasing him. _No, no, don’t come this way_ —

The adrenaline fueling Rex spikes when he feels his ankle twist and slip out from underneath him and he’s sent crashing to the ground. He barely manages to let out a shout as his face hits the ground, and Malos turns to look at him.

“Hold on, Rex!” he says. Hold on for what? 

Rotbart is getting closer, closer, and Malos must not be thinking clearly, because he runs straight towards Rex. What is he doing? They’re both going to die!

Malos doesn’t try to help Rex up like he expects. Instead, a dark power sparks to life in his hand and he leaps over Rex. Rex turns to watch in horror as Malos meets Rotbart’s hand with a punch that might have cracked a jawbone had it connected with a human’s face instead. “Malos!”

Rotbart lets out a pained shriek when Malos’s fist connects with him and physically recoils. Rex’s blood runs cold as he watches the power spread from Malos’s fist and literally _consume_ the lower half of Rotbart’s arm. Anything the darkness touches that isn’t Malos is disintegrating before his eyes, and Rotbart reaches for the disintegrating arm with his other hand, only for that arm to begin disintegrating too once it touches the darkness.

Doesn’t he know he’s making it worse by grabbing at his face like that? Architect, the way he’s _screaming_ —

Oh Architect, he grabbed at his face, he’s getting louder—silence falls over him after a few moments, followed by the thunderous thud of what’s left of his body. The cries echo in Rex’s head long after the thud. Malos turns to him and offers him a hand up, but he can only stare at Rotbart’s half-eaten corpse with tears threatening to spill over. 

_So this is the power of an Aegis._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RIP Rotbart Chapter 2-Chapter 2
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> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
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	3. Affinity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rex comes to realize that there might be an issue, and Rex and Malos gain some new allies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gahhh this chapter gave me a lot of issues in the final stages. It was originally intended to be much longer (about 1.5x this length) but it was getting a bit ridiculous so I had to cut partway through, lol. 
> 
> The next chapter may take some time to get out, since my finals are coming up and I need to get all my school stuff out of the way, but I'll do my best to get it finished in a timely manner!
> 
> Thanks so much to everyone for the feedback! It means a lot to me and it's been super encouraging.
> 
> Thanks to Ajur as always for helping me through this chapter ^^

Rex can’t tear his eyes away from Malos’s back once he finally collects himself enough to continue to Torigoth. Even the thought of eye contact is impossible, and not just because of their height difference.

He could have tried to move past Malos’s involvement in the war. After all, he’d been trying to help. Countless people dead, but more would be if not for him. But Rotbart…

He’s grateful for Malos saving his life (twice now), and he won’t forget it, not with the core crystal thrumming with energy in his chest, but the power he used was… gruesome. Is that what he’d done to the tree before? How many people have died like that, watching their bodies disintegrate before their eyes, powerless to stop it? How many living things has he used it on? How is—

“—your ankle?” Malos’s voice cuts through his thoughts.

He stumbles in his surprise. “Sorry, what was that? I was thinking.” He quietly wishes for the conversation to be short. The more he talks to Malos, the more he gets stuck on Rotbart. Were he not Malos’s Driver, would he have run from him? Would he be more scared than he is now?

“You twisted your ankle when you fell, didn’t you?” He nods to Rex’s foot.

Come to think of it, he had, but he doesn’t remember mentioning it. Malos must be pretty observant to notice something like that. “Yeah. I’m fine. We’re almost to Torigoth, anyhow. By the way, Gramps, are you alright?” He’d be surprised if Gramps _hadn’t_ gotten hurt somehow, and any topic that took the focus off him was one Rex would bring attention to right now.

"I'm alright. Thank you for your concern." Come on, Gramps, you were supposed to have more to say. Now he's got to continue the conversation somehow.

"Yeah, of course," he says. Mercifully, Malos's attention leaves him.

Gramps, however, continues to talk. "Are you sure you're alright? You appear to have quite the tangle of thoughts." 

He has to ask. "Do you think Malos has used that power on _people_?"

“That’s not a question I can answer. You’d have to ask him yourself,” Gramps says. He’s right, but Rex was hoping for more reassurance.

“I do not think, however, that Malos would have done so if he didn’t feel it was necessary to.”

The answer only turns his stomach. “That doesn’t make it right. How do you think it felt, for Rotbart to…”

“He must have been in a lot of pain, by the way it sounded.”

Rex falls silent. He doesn't like the sound of that.

"He did save your life, Rex," he continues gently. "You should probably thank him."

"I know! It's just... Can we stop talking about this?" He's certain Malos can hear them, and he's not wanting to have that conversation yet. Not before he can process his thoughts. Not that he has any idea how long that'll take him.

They come to a stop at the gate to Torigoth. Nia climbs off Dromarch's back and turns to the others, stretching languidly. "Alright. I can take you to the inn, and then it's goodbye from there.”

Rex considers trying once again to change her mind, but who’s he to force her into something she clearly doesn’t want? 

He keeps his mouth shut and follows her into town. Torigoth bustles with people. It reminds Rex of Goldmouth, how everyone had somewhere to be or something to do, only it’s somehow both more relaxed and more rigid than Goldmouth. He can’t remember the last time he saw so many soldiers in such a short span of time.

“What’s with all the soldiers?” he finds himself asking.

“Gormott’s a province of the Ardainian empire,” Nia answers. “If I had to guess, they’re probably setting up for Driver recruitment. Probably running out of potentials to recruit from their own ranks. Come on, no sense staying to watch. We can avoid the crowds this way.”

She weaves her way through the outskirts of the crowd. Thanks to Malos and Dromarch, who are naturally intimidating, people are quick to make room for them to get through.

Nia looks around restlessly as she leads them to a backstreet—does she not like crowds or something? Come to think of it, she had been avoiding drinking with most of the crew back on the Maelstrom, maybe that’s why?

“Nia, are you sure about going off on your own?” Malos asks. “Not sure that’s the greatest idea for you.” 

Huh. Never expected him to be the one trying to keep her on board.

She snorts. “What, you don’t think Dromarch and I can handle ourselves?”

“To be frank, you haven’t convinced me. You’d need a bit more than climbing trees to survive on your own you know, especially since you seem keen to avoid people.”

She crosses her arms across her chest. “That’s not—"

“Stop right there!” A voice cuts through Nia’s indignant response. She freezes. Rex immediately looks around. Other than the three soldiers at the other end of the street, there’s no one around that he could be talking to.

“Are you talking to us?” He tilts his head curiously.

Nia grabs his arm. “Are you okay to run?”

“What? Why would we—”

“Don’t ask questions,” she hisses. “There’s no time for that. They’re after me—this is what I was talking about when I said I can’t stay with you guys.”

“After you? Nia, what’s going on?”

“Stop talking! Nobody moves!” The soldier in the center approaches, and Rex instinctively backs away. A turn of his head lets him see another several soldiers approached, guns at the ready. _It’s just one thing after another today, isn’t it?_

“That fugitive in your company is a member of the terrorist group Torna,” he continues. “Gormotti driver, white beast-form Blade.” It’s as if he’s checking items off a list as he inspects their little group. What does he mean, “terrorist”? Nia saved his life, she’s not some _murderer_.

“Rex, Dromarch and I are going to make our move. If you want to run, do it when we attack.” Nia hisses her plan just loudly enough for him to hear.

“We’re not gonna run, you know,” he says, shifting into a battle stance.

“And you, boy.” It’s really hard to focus on anything this soldier is saying when he’s got a gun pointed at Rex, but somehow he manages to pay attention. “What’s your Driver registration number?”

“My what?” What the hell is he talking about, registration number?

“New Drivers need to register with Indol by law. We’ll see what the consul has to say about an unregistered Driver running around.” 

Nia slowly shifts into a battle stance, hands on her weapons in preparation. “Well, guess now you don’t have a choice. On my count, be ready to attack.”

“Right.” For all his bravado, Rex isn’t sure how this is going to go. He’s not thrilled at the thought of battling alongside Malos. What if he uses that power on someone else?

“No use resisting,” one of the soldiers taunts. “We have you outnumbered.”

Malos laughs at that. Does he realize the situation? “I’ve taken on a lot worse than a few imperial soldiers. Try us.”

“Malos, don’t _taunt_ them,” Rex scolds. He’s trying _not_ to get into an unnecessary fight, thank you very much. 

“Not sorry. Worst comes to worst, I can always—”

“ _Don’t_.” Rex cuts him off before he can even think about it, horror seeping into his voice. It’s not hard to pick up that Malos is talking about using _that_ power again.

“Now!” Nia says. Rex draws his sword, going for the nearest soldier, but he doesn’t feel the rush of ether that he’d been getting used to when battling alongside Malos. A quick glance shows that Malos is trying, but the link isn’t reaching him for some reason.

“Malos, what’s going on?” Rex asks as he slides past a soldier’s attempts to grab him. He makes a swipe, but the sword is still dormant.

“Why are you asking me? It’s stopping at you.” Even without ether, the sword is still a sword, right? 

“Why would it stop at me?” It’s not like he’s trying to stop it from forming, in fact, it would be really helpful to have right about now. The hit he lands on a soldier does almost nothing, only sending the man stumbling backwards.

“I was afraid of this,” Gramps says, gripping the helmet to avoid falling out. “Rex, how are you feeling about Malos after seeing him kill Rotbart?”

What’s that got to do with anything? He’s already talked to Gramps about this. “What do you mean?”

“If you’re afraid of Malos’s power, you may be rejecting it without realizing. The affinity link between Driver and Blade relies on your relationship to one another. If you can’t trust your Blade, he won’t be able to transfer ether to you.”

Malos effortlessly pushes a soldier to the side, swooping in to take care of one who’s going for Rex. “We can talk about this later. Since we can’t link, we’ll have to improvise. How are you with that sword?”

“I can handle this without ether, if that’s what you’re asking.” As if to prove a point, he lands a well-placed blow on a soldier’s arm, sending the man in question stumbling backwards.

“Good,” Malos says. “Then I expect you to handle it.”

“As if you had to tell me.” As long as it stays like this and no one else shows up, there’s no way they won’t be able to deal with these guys.

Like they’ve been cursed, a wall of blue flames erupts around them, stemming from the opening of the alleyway. Walking towards them is a woman in a form-fitting purple dress. As she gets closer, it becomes evident that she's a Blade—her purple hair is tinged with the same blue flames that entrap them. At her side, she carries a pair of segmented swords.

She doesn’t need to open her eyes to look right through them as she comes to a stop at the sight of Rex. Or, now that he thinks about it, it’s more probable that she’s looking at Malos, who stands behind him and doesn’t seem even slightly intimidated by the fact that their only hopes of an easy escape are currently being burnt by this Blade.

“Keep your guards up,” Dromarch says. “That’s Brighid, the Jewel of Mor Ardain. She’s known as the most powerful Blade in the empire.”

“Brighid!” Malos holds his hands up in an almost welcoming manner. “I take it you don’t remember me?” Remember him? Have they met before?

Brighid ignores his question. “Interesting. I’d heard that there was a commotion with some Drivers, but I wasn’t expecting to find the Aegis among them.”

“We’re just passing through,” Malos says. “Really, all this bravado is getting annoying.” 

“I’d have expected you to be used to this kind of treatment by now,” she says.

“If she’s a Blade, where’s her Driver?” Rex keeps his eyes locked on Brighid.

“My Driver is otherwise engaged at present. I will handle you alone.”

“She’s not got a Driver? How can she…” She shouldn’t be able to battle them without a Driver, right? Then again, Malos could handle everything without him, and Dromarch had helped him in fending off creatures while looking for Nia and Malos in the forest, but even so…

One of the soldiers laughs. “The Jewel of Mor Ardain doesn’t need a Driver to crush the lot of you!”

“Captain Padraig. We are to take them alive.” Brighid draws her sword. Can she seriously fight in a dress like that? It can’t be easy for her to move around in, especially when she’s in heels like that.

Then again, he supposes you don’t need much movement when you can create fire. He’s got to commend her control, really, the flames don’t seem to be burning any of the wooden architecture.

“Roger, Lady Brighid!” One soldier—Captain Padraig, apparently, nods to two soldiers, who salute and run off. Are they bringing reinforcements?

For a brief moment, Rex’s sword sputters to life. Has Malos been devoting energy to trying to form the link even knowing that Rex is the problem?

He shakes off the thought and prepares himself as Brighid approaches with swords at the ready. She’s made her intent clear, and like hell if he’s going down without a fight and letting anyone get to Malos, Nia, or Dromarch. Malos may be able to handle almost anything on his own, but that doesn’t mean he should have to.

Brighid attacks mercilessly, with quick movements and blazing fire that seems fake until she cracks a sword into a whip and it leaves a nasty burn on his arm. He retaliates, striking the moment even a bit of ether manages to seep its way through the weak link he holds with Malos.

“Rex,” Nia says when they end up back to back, “can you and Malos keep focus on her? Fire’s not a good matchup for me an’ Dromarch.”

He’s not sure, honestly. He knows for fact that Malos could take out Brighid with no issue, after seeing what he’s capable of, but…

“You can’t beat her without ether,” Malos says. He’s still doing what he can to maintain any semblance of a link, but he’s forced to handle some of the soldiers with his fists so Rex can focus on Brighid. “There’s a reason they say she’s the strongest in Mor Ardain.”

“In the past?” Right, he’s at least five hundred years old. He dares to look over his shoulder at Malos mid-battle to speak. The moment he does, a flame licks at his cheek, dangerously close to his eye.

“Eyes on your opponent,” Malos chastises immediately. He hadn’t even been looking, how had he known— “I can get us out of here, but I’ll be using that power—”

“No!” Rex says, horrified. “We’ll find some other way. Just… not like that.” 

“I get that you’re a good kid or whatever,” Malos says, “but we don’t have any other option here. Stop wasting time or you’ll get yourself killed. There’s only so many times I can save your ass.”

Maybe he’s being ridiculous. Malos could get them out of this easily. “I _know,_ just give me a chance to think of something!” He swings his sword in a wide arc, scanning the arena Brighid’s created with her flames in hopes of finding an opening. The only area she’s left without a wall of fire to block their escape is the city wall, which doesn’t look very climbable if you don’t have claws.

Before Rex can find a solution to this predicament, Malos shouts and shoves him. He hits the ground shoulder-first. He’s ready to say a few choice things to Malos, but then he sees Nia get entangled by some strange net, which wraps her up with enough force that she hits the ground.

Moments later, a second net hits its mark, wrapping Dromarch up just as efficiently as Nia is. Before Rex can find the source of the nets, which appear to pulse with some unknown light, a nearby pipe just above Brighid suddenly explodes, drenching her with water.

For a second, he thinks she’s hissing, but when the flames surrounding them fizzle out, he realizes that he’s hearing the steam from the water. She looks around for the source, but it’s not clear if there even was one.

Nia, however, is actually hissing. Whatever the net is, it doesn’t give to any amount of struggling, and Dromarch’s attempts to use arts fizzle out much like the fire has.

“Rex, you and Malos need to run,” Nia says. “I don’t care about your sensibilities or whatever, leave Dromarch and me behind! We’ll make it out somehow.”

Dromarch grunts as he fights against the net. “Whatever these are, they appear to be absorbing ether between me and my lady.”

“I can’t just leave you behind!” Rex says, placing himself between them and Brighid. Now that he has a free moment to look, he can see the two soldiers from earlier, each holding a launcher of some kind. Rex assumes they used the launchers to fire the nets at Nia and Dromarch.

One cackles. “How are you finding those ether nets? Try resisting when you can’t get any ether flow to your weapons.”

“Listen, Rex, we need to get out of here,” Malos says. “I don’t say this, ever, but we can’t fight her like this. We can come back for Nia and Dromarch, but no one can help us if we get captured.”

He hates to admit it, but there really is no help for them if they manage to get Malos caught up in one of those nets. With a deep breath, he relents.

“We’ll be back for you, okay?”

“Not counting on it,” Nia says as Rex and Malos run past them.

They follow the dirt path into a wooden area, past an open door where a Nopon begs their attention. “Friends come in here! Tora help you escape!” 

Rex glances at Malos, who nods. The Nopon swings the door shut behind him and locks it just in time.

They listen for several moments as the thudding of feet echoes through the corridor. Rex holds his breath as he waits for silence. The moment it comes, the Nopon releases his own breath and speaks. “Friends come this way. This back door to house of Tora!”

They’re in too deep now to have another option, so Rex and Malos follow him down the hallway. At the end is a cozy little house, probably the perfect size for a Nopon. From where Rex stands, he can see what can only be described as a mess. The kitchen and dining area are relatively clean, but everywhere else has some kind of clutter, namely papers and various tools.

“Thank you for saving us,” Rex says. “So you’re… Tora, you said? Why’d you help us?”

“Tora never like those big bully soldiers, and, meh…” Tora turns away from them bashfully. “Always think Drivers are so cool! Driver and Blade make big power when join spirits! Want to be like cool Driver!”

Malos sounds less amused. “You saved us because you think Drivers are cool?” 

“That right!”

“Well, I’m Rex, and this is Malos and Gramps.” Rex gestures to the two respectively, prompting Gramps to wave. “It’s nice to meet you, Tora.” There are worse reasons to save someone, anyway, and Rex really doesn’t think there’s room to complain when they could also have gotten captured.

“Rex-Rex is so lucky to have powerful Blade!” Tora flaps his wings feverishly, his feet barely leaving the ground. Rex isn’t sure, but he thinks he can see stars in Tora’s eyes.

His words leave a bitter taste in Rex’s mouth. “Yeah, lucky.” How lucky can he be? He can’t even properly link with Malos, and so far all he’s managed to do is get saved by Malos. 

Malos glances at Rex. He’s thankful for the fact that he chooses not to address it while Tora continues to gush.

“So, Tora, d’you have any idea where those soldiers might have taken someone they’ve arrested? You probably know Torigoth much better than Malos or me.” 

Malos crosses his arms. “We’re going to rescue them, then?” 

“Of course. Can’t just leave her there, after all.” 

He smiles. “Finally, you’re making good decisions.” 

Tora quieted for a moment. “No idea where big bullies take friend. Tora have to ask around town for that!” 

“Maybe it’s not in town…?” Gramps hums as he considers the thought. “Can’t say I have much experience in breaking people out of jail.”

Rex sighed. “Makes sense. Haven’t been here long, but I haven’t noticed any place like a jail here.”

“Hmm… Tora and friends think about it later! Now time for food!” 

“Can’t we handle that later? I’d like to find Nia and Dromarch as soon as possible.” He gets that people have needs, but shouldn’t they be more urgent about this? There’s no telling what could be happening to Nia and Dromarch right now, after all, and…

“You haven’t eaten anything yet today, kid. Can’t do anything for them like that. I can cook something for everyone if it’s going to be an issue.”

“Malos, you can cook?” He shouldn’t even be surprised anymore. Is there anything he _can’t_ do?

He scoffs. “Of course I can cook. You act like it’s hard.”

“Tora not have skills for complicated dish, so may have to clean things for cook.” Tora walks over to a box in the kitchenette and points to it. “Ingredients in box!”

Malos walks over and begins rustling through the box. “Yeah, I can work with this.” 

“Well, while Malos cooks, may I speak with you, Rex?” Gramps climbs out of his helmet and flutters over to Tora’s dining table to sit. He stretches out a bit while waiting for a response.

“Oh, yeah, no problem. Is this meant to be private?” He can’t say he’s thrilled at the prospect. This is about the closest that Gramps ever gets to a serious “we need to talk” moment, and he’s pretty sure he knows what it’s about.

“No, here is fine. It’s for the best that Malos hears it, seeing as he’s your Blade.” 

That’s enough to confirm Rex’s suspicion about this chat. He takes a seat nearby and nods for Gramps to go ahead. Malos is chopping some kind of fruit in the background, but it’s not hard to tell that he’s listening. Not like there’s anything else to listen to.

“To put it simply, you need to work on your relationship with Malos.” 

Simply, right. “Work…?”

“As I was saying during battle, the reason Malos cannot transmit ether to you is because you don’t trust him. A Driver needs to trust his Blade, and the Blade, the Driver.” Gramps crosses his arms as he speaks. “Are you sure there’s no problems you may have with him?”

“Problems?” Maybe he should have taken this somewhere private, after all. “No, no, nothing of the sort!”

“Are you sure? If I recall, you had no problems fighting with him against Mythra.” Gramps peers right past his facade.

He flounders for a moment. “Well, that was before—”

“Are you seriously going to try to pretend like nothing’s wrong?” Malos chops through something especially hard, sending the slice to the floor. “Your Blades can tell when the affinity link dies because of the Driver, you know. I don’t know what the hell is up with you, but I know that you’ve decided that you don’t trust me.” He looks over his shoulder at Rex, whose posture stiffens accordingly.

Rex tries to redirect his attention to anything else, which results in him watching Malos’s impressive knifework. Shouldn’t he be looking at the knife when he’s cutting so qui—

“Can’t you be bothered to look at me when I’m talking to you?” Malos snaps. “Whatever problems you have with my power, I’m going to need you to get over it. Your friend was captured because you refused to let me use it, and had I not used it on Rotbart, we’d all be dead right now.”

“Mehmeh, Tora go clean up now! Friends not mind Tora!” Tora, smart Nopon that he is, makes the decision to bow out before he somehow gets caught up in the conversation. 

Rex is a bit too scared to say anything for a moment, but he at least manages to look Malos in the eyes now. “…Have you used it on people before?” He asks finally.

“I don’t use that power on living beings unless I don’t have another choice. Believe it or not, you’re not the first Driver that wasn’t necessarily fine with the thought of a power that destroys everything it touches.” He turns back to his knifework. “Had there been time to figure out how to get you out of that situation without using it on that thing, I would have, but fact is, you were moments away from death.” 

Gramps leans forward. “Rex, if you can’t yet move past Malos’s power, maybe it’s better for you to resonate with a second Blade.”

“A second Blade?” The subject change is a nice distraction. “You mean like, resonating with another core crystal?”

“Yes. Many Drivers choose to resonate with more than one Blade,” he says. “For various reasons, but you may find it easier to build affinity with another Blade instead of having to rely on Malos.”

“It’s not like with Malos, right? I'm not sure if I know how.”

“You’re a Driver. Whether or not you had the potential before, you do now,” Malos says. “It’s not hard, just grab the thing and focus."

“Okay, next question. Where do I even get a core crystal to resonate with?” They're not exactly common if you're not looking to join the military. 

“Tora can help!” Now that Malos is calm, or at least quiet, Tora’s ever eager to be useful to the conversation. “Tora have crystal from try to be Driver! Tora give to Rex-Rex since not have potential anyway.”

“That’s very kind of you, Tora,” Gramps says. 

Tora shuffles around the clutter on his desk. When he finally finds the glowing blue crystal, he bounds over to Rex with it. “Meheh, not big deal! Man at shop wouldn’t give refund, so Tora hold onto it just in case!”

“Tora, why can’t you resonate with it if you want a Blade so much?” He’s never really known much about Drivers and Blades, but it seems strange that he wouldn't be able to. Come to think of it, Malos did mention something about "potential"...

Tora frowns. “Not everyone have potential for become Driver. When Tora try to become Driver, Tora’s nose bleed like fountain for three days straight! Others have much worse, though.”

“So not everyone can become a Driver?” That makes sense. Didn’t Nia say something earlier about the empire running out of people to recruit as Drivers, too?

“It’s becoming increasingly rare to find potential Drivers in Alrest these days,” Gramps says.

“Rex-Rex already have Blade, so should have potential for another!” Tora extended the wing holding the core crystal expectantly. “Go on, Rex-Rex, Tora want to see crystal become Blade!"

“I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’ll give it a go.” The moment Rex’s hand closes around the crystal, it washes over the room with a bright light. Rex feels, rather than sees, the core crystal morphing in his hand to form the handle of something heavy.

He braces himself against the unexpected weight of the weapon as the light clears. Once it’s faded, he can see the greataxe that's been formed. The wind whips around him almost violently. Is it supposed to do that? 

The wind stills after a few moments as the Blade slows to a stop in front of him. Was she just showing off? The Blade, along with her hair and shawl, defy gravity as she floats before Rex. She’s not exactly well-covered, but… that’s normal for Blades, right? He tries not to think about it. 

Her eyes are sharp as she inspects Rex. “I take it you’re my Driver? I’m Zenobia.” She extends a hand to Rex, who hurriedly moves the axe onto his shoulder and shakes her hand. 

“Yeah. My name’s Rex,” he says as he shakes her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“I won’t pretend I was hoping for someone less scrawny, but you’ll do! Who’re your friends?”

“This is Malos, Gramps, and Tora,” he says, gesturing to each of them.

“Malos, huh…?” Zenobia floats over to the man in question, looking him over once, then a second time. When she spots his core crystal, she gives him a sharp-toothed grin. “That’s not a normal core crystal, Malos. Are you Rex’s Blade, too?”

He nods, eyeing her. She bursts into laughter, leaning up against the counter.

When she stops laughing, she wipes at a tear and meets his incredulous stare with an even wider grin. “What’s the Aegis doing cooking for a bunch of guys?” 

Malos moves to the stove. “I was hungry, and I doubt any of them can actually feed themselves.” 

Rude. He’s fed himself for five years without a problem before Malos.

“Um, Zenobia?” Rex steps towards her cautiously. “Malos and I are going to Elysium. Will you come with us?”

“Elysium, you say?” She considers it for a moment. “How refreshing. Drivers usually don’t bother asking their Blades about stuff like that. I’ll come with you if I can fight Malos.”

“You want to… fight him?”

Zenobia laughs again. Is everything amusing to her? “Of _course_ I want to fight him. The Aegis is supposed to be ultra-powerful, right? The strongest Blade in existence? I'm going to surpass that.”

“I suppose if he’s okay with it, there’s no reason for me to say no…” Rex rubbed the back of his neck. It should be fine, right?

“Great!” Zenobia floated back over to Malos, draping an arm over his shoulder. “What do you say, Malos?”

“Get off of me. I’m busy.” He adjusts his posture to push her off without even looking up.

She reluctantly backs away so he can move around. “Well, obviously we wouldn’t fight _now_. But come on, it’d be _great_ practice! Unless you don’t think you can take me?”

“Are you done?” Oh, Malos is getting irritated now. Well, he was pretty irritated before, but Zenobia is pushing him to new heights. 

“Nope! I’m gonna keep pushing until you fight me!” 

Malos chooses not to respond to that. “Tora, where are your plates?” Tora bounds over to the kitchen to show him where things are kept.

Maybe Rex should step in. “I’m not so sure pushing him like this is a good idea, maybe you should—"

“Zenobia, was it?” Malos is adding what appears to be final touches now as Tora sets the table silently. “Care to take a guess what I did this morning?”

“I have no idea! Did you get to kill something awesome?” Her face lights up at the thought.

“I killed a gogol the size of this house by punching it a single time,” he says. Rex flinches. “Maybe later I can take you to see what’s left of it.”

“What? I don’t believe you. How is that even possible?” She appears hooked on his every word. “You’re bluffing.” 

“Ask the kid if you don’t believe me. Unless you can stand up to something that powerful, I’d abandon any hopes you have of fighting me, shut up, and eat lunch. That goes for the rest of you, too. We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to go rescue Nia.”

Zenobia glances at Rex with her head tilted as if to ask, _is this guy serious?_ Rex only nods, stomach turning again at the thought of Rotbart.

She breaks into a grin. “Well then! You’ve given me a goal, is that a promise?"

Malos heaves a sigh as he starts serving whatever it is he’s made. “I’ll consider it if you can ever make it that far.”

“Great! It’s a deal!” Zenobia laughs, taking a seat at the table. “Don’t forget me, okay?”

“Like you’d let me,” he says. 

As everyone sits down to eat, a thought occurs to Rex. "Come to think of it, Mythra's an Aegis too, right?"

"Right."

"But if the Aegis is a Blade, how can she have Sever? Is it possible for Blades to be Drivers, too?" 

Malos entertains the thought for a moment. "You've got a point. Normal Blades can't become Drivers. The core crystal just doesn't respond."

"But," Gramps says, "an Aegis is not just a normal Blade. It's quite possible that Mythra and Malos both may have the ability to become Drivers." 

"There's another Aegis?" Zenobia asks.

"Yeah," Malos says. "Not sure you want to fight her, though. She's not going to put up with you at all."

"You're going to have to get to know me better, Malos. I absolutely want to fight her."

"I don't think Mythra is interested in some friendly battle." 

"You're not a very fun person, are you?" Zenobia teases. "Say, Rex, do you think we'll get to fight this other Aegis sometime?"

Is she crazy? "I mean, probably yeah, but not if we're lucky. She's ruthless." 

“Oh, I like the sound of that!”

He gets the sense that there's nothing he can say that will change Zenobia's mind. He's not even sure they'd survive a second fight against Mythra. Rex returns to eating in silence.

~

“So, Rex,” Zenobia says as she follows the man in question. “I'm curious. You’ve got Malos. Arguably the strongest Blade out there. Capable of pretty much anything.”

“Yeah?” Rex says. They, along with Malos, are following Tora into town on a bit of a shopping trip while they try to gather information on Nia. Rex had offered to help Tora get the final parts he needed for this project he was working on, as thanks for all of the help he’d given them today.

“What did you resonate with _me_ for?”

Of course she’d ask that. “Well, it was Gramps’s suggestion, but…”

“More power, right? It must be hard to make it to Elysium with only one Blade on your side,” she says. “You couldn’t have picked a better Blade to resonate with! Between me and Malos, we’ll get there for sure!”

“Actually, Gramps suggested it because I’m having trouble linking with Malos,” Rex admits.

Her face falls. “Oh, well that’s no good. You need to be able to trust all your Blades, Rex, not just one. Yeah, I’m pretty strong, but if you can’t even _use_ Malos… What’s the problem?”

“It’s just that… I can’t move past the power he used against Rotbart. Er, the gogol he mentioned killing. It was… horrific. He didn’t even seem to be bothered by it.” He shudders at the thought. "And I can't help but wonder who he's used it on before." Everyone’s right that he needs to learn to move past it, it’s just so hard to think of it as a power for good when it acts so horrifically.

“So, you’re afraid of his power, then. Why’d he kill Rotbart? Just because?” She can’t understand where he’s coming from. He gets that, though. Maybe Nia’d understand, but she’s in a jail cell somewhere. He hopes she’s okay.

Rex shakes his head. “No, he—”

“Actually,” she cuts him off immediately, “I’m gonna talk to him about it and get the story from him first. You go handle this techno-stuff with Tora at the shop while I talk to him, ‘kay?” Before Rex can even respond, she runs up to Malos and pulls him off to the side. Trying to listen to what she’s saying to him is pointless, so Rex approaches the shopkeeper Tora’s talking to. 

“Don’t suppose you’ve heard anything about that Gormotti Driver those soldiers captured this morning?” Rex asks tentatively as Tora shops. 

He nods. “Nasty bit of business, that. The terrorist, right?” He’s technically right, but that’s not a word he’d apply to Nia. “Heard they’re going to take her back to Mor Ardain to be executed.”

 _Executed!?_ Oh no. They need to work fast. “Do you know where she’d be held, out of curiosity? I’m passing through, see, and I’ve always been interested in stuff like that.” He's cautious about coming across as suspicious, but no amount of caution can prevent the subtle alarm that creeps into his voice.

The shopkeeper laughs. “Can’t blame you for that. Seems everyone in town is interested in that girl, and for good reason. Torna’s killed a lot of good people.” Okay, now _that’s_ gotta be wrong. Nia’s not a killer. Mixed up with a bad group, maybe, but there's no way she's a killer.

"If I had to guess, they might have taken her aboard that warship outside town. Can't imagine any place less secure would work for someone like her."

“Rex-Rex, Tora found parts needed for finish big project!”

Tora could probably use a lesson or two on how not to interrupt an important conversation. “Alright, how much for them, then?”

The shopkeeper looks over the items momentarily. “Three bion connectors, and one perfect range sensor… thirty-two thousand gold, I’d say.”

“What? I’ve got money, but not that much.” He’d sent most of his advance on the recent job home to Fonsett. “Is there anything we can do to maybe bring that price down a bit?” 

“No chance. Not easy to get your hands on these, you know. At most I can go down to thirty thousand.” 

No matter how steadfast the shopkeeper is, it won’t change the fact that that’s still about twenty thousand more gold than Rex has to spend. He sighs, and just as he’s about to tell Tora that he can’t afford _that_ much help, Zenobia slings an arm over his shoulder.

“Got anything you need killed?” She says, grinning wildly.

He looks shocked for a moment. “Are you…?”

“No, not people, if that’s what you’re thinking. This province has all kinds of creatures outside Torigoth, right? Some frightening, some maybe getting in the way of you receiving shipments…” Zenobia might be something of a genius. 

The man thinks for a moment. “Well, you’re right that there’s this gogol that makes it hard to get deliveries from other villages, but you don’t want to go near—”

“If you're talking about Rotbart, he’s dead as of this morning, so that’s not an issue. We can get proof if you’ll sweeten the deal for us.” 

The shopkeep looks at her blankly for a moment before he shakes his head. “Can’t believe I’m doing this. If you can bring me proof that he’s dead, I’ll charge you eight thousand for the whole lot. But it's got to be definitive proof, you hear? It won't be hard to tell if he's still out and about if you're lying.”

“Consider it done, then!” Zenobia pats Rex on the back forcefully, causing him to cough. 

Seriously? Eight thousand? He’s dropping twenty-four thousand off the price over this?

Maybe Malos's power is more useful than he thought, if it means all they need to do to get past this is bring in some kind of proof.

~

“Are you going to stare at me all night?” Malos looks over his shoulder at Rex, who’s been trying to say something to him ever since he woke up this morning. Honestly, he’s not doing himself any favors by putting it off. Tora’s in the other room, working on his robot, and Father only knows where Zenobia went off to. He’s grateful for the privacy, though, as he’s been trying to look over the map Tora gave them of the area and plan Nia's rescue.

Rex stutters as he’s startled out of his silence. “No, I just… sorry. Wasn’t tryin’ to be rude.” He focuses on the map in a poorly-concealed attempt to avoid eye contact. Honestly, they’re going to have to work on his social skills. Does he treat everyone like this?

Malos sighs. “You know, you’d probably be better at talking to people if you started looking them in the eyes when it comes to important stuff.”

“What?” Rex’s eyes snap up to look at him. That’s better. 

“You want to say something to me, then say it. We’ve got time while the fuzzball works on his robot, and I’m not making much progress trying to find a route to that warship.”

“It’s just, I was talking to Zenobia and she was trying to, you know, help me see things from your perspective.” He pauses to consider his next words. “You know how earlier, I was asking if you’d ever used that power on humans?” 

Ah. So _that’s_ what this is about. He was wondering why Zenobia suddenly interrogated him yesterday over the stuff with Rotbart. He supposes she must have done something right, if Rex is talking to him about it now.

“You said that your old Driver didn’t like your power either. How did you… you know, move past all that with him?” 

He’s almost proud of Rex managing to keep an acceptable amount of eye contact when asking his question. Almost. He’s more concerned about the question itself. He has to stop to think about the answer—500 years ago is a lot of time to forget things, after all, and Addam didn’t make nearly so much fuss about it.

“To tell you the truth, Addam and I just—” 

The lights suddenly spark, then go out completely. The sudden darkness is enough to make Malos stop talking and listen for the others. Was the storm outside really _that_ bad? Yeah, there’d been some thunder, but a power outage?

Zenobia’s voice echoes out from somewhere above them. “Everything alright? I was trying to read!” 

Huh. Didn’t know she could read.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Rex asks. 

“Friends need not worry! Lights back in just a moment,” Tora calls from his workshop. Moments later, the lights flicker back on. “Poppi just needed big shock for wakey!” 

“Did it work?” Rex gets up and walks into the workshop, maybe a bit too eager to see. Malos, although reluctant to admit his curiosity, follows, and soon the room is crowded as Zenobia joins in to see the unveiling.

“Come on, Poppi,” Tora whispers. The robot’s arms twitch momentarily before her posture straightens and her face comes to life.

“Greetings, masterpon!” The robot—Poppi—salutes flawlessly. She looks like a child, but more... rigid. “My name Poppi. Pleased to meet friends!” She waves to every person in the room individually, a bright smile on her face. He’s gotta give Tora credit—it takes one intelligent Nopon to build something like this from scratch. 

Rex lets out a low whistle. “Wow, she’s really lifelike!”

“Meheheh, Tora spend years building Poppi!” Wow. Is he tearing up? 

“Of course Poppi lifelike! Masterpon put lots of love into building of Poppi.” She stands proudly. Is she taking credit for being built? “Poppi have no doubt that masterpon would not settle for less than perfect!”

“Poppi world’s first artificial Blade!” Tora explains.

Okay, he’ll admit it. If this “Poppi” functions like a normal Blade, that’s one damn impressive feat of engineering.

“Artificial Blade?” Rex looks her over again, eyes wide. “You can fight with her?”

“That not all! Poppi programmed to do many things, even able to fly,” Tora says. “Tora and Poppi would be very helpful in rescuing Driver friend of Rex-Rex!”

Rex looks shocked momentarily. “Wait, you want to come with us?”

“It least Tora can do to help friends!”

“Poppi will go where masterpon goes,” Poppi adds.

“That settles it, then,” Rex says, “we’ll go rescue Nia and Dromarch together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> This author sees and appreciates all comments, but may not reply.


	4. Jailbreak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rex and co. break a pair of friends out of jail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you'd seen the last of me.
> 
> Lmao sorry it took ten years to get this chapter out, I have no excuse.

Rex stared up at the ship above them. Malos had found a place on Tora’s map that showed a large root extending out underneath a maintenance entrance to the battleship—they’d made it out to the root, so all that was left was getting up to the entrance. It seems close enough, maybe he could…

He takes aim and fires his grappling hook at the ledge. It embeds itself firmly in the underside of the ship. _Gotcha_. Moments later, the wind whips his face. He thinks it’s coming from the momentum of the grappling hook pulling himself up, but when he reaches the ledge and pulls himself up to look at his friends below, he sees that Zenobia’s flown herself up to join him.

“Alright,” he says, “now how do we get the rest of you up here?”

Poppi answers most of his question wordlessly, grabbing Tora with both of her arms and flying herself up on jets like it’s nothing. She sets him down and stands proudly. “This no problem for Poppi. Masterpon also made Poppi extra strong!”

“Think that you could help me pull Malos up, then? I’m sure the lot of us could manage it.”

“Send the grappling hook down and we can all give it a shot,” Zenobia says. 

Rex nods and sends it down for Malos. Poppi is already grabbing at the line for support. The two lurch slightly at Malos’s weight when he grabs the chain and steps onto the hook—all that muscle must weigh a _lot_ —and Tora and Zenobia do what they can to provide support. From there, they manage to pull Malos up to the ledge, albeit not without a struggle, and now they face the truly hard part of this jailbreak—finding Nia and Dromarch without being jailed themselves.

Luckily, the first thing of note they happen upon is a dead-end hallway filled with cells. Poppi stops in front of one and points at it. “Poppi senses Blade behind door.”

"That must be Dromarch," Rex says, "but how do we get him out?"

Tora frowns as he investigates the door in question. "Door is locked tight, meh. Tora not know how to pick locks..."

"Poppi is very strong. Could assist by applying brute force to door."

Gramps pokes his head out of Rex's helmet. "I do not think it would be wise to make a lot of noise. After all, we wouldn't want to draw unnecessary attention to our presence here." 

Zenobia’s voice echoes down the corridor. She’s not great at volume control, or maybe she doesn’t care. "Come _on_ , don't worry so much. I'm sure we could take them on if they did hear us, and these guys are good practice!"

"We can't just barge in like it's nothing, though," Rex says, "and last time, the soldiers had these ether nets. If they have any more of those, we'll have done worse than wasted our time, Nia’ll be…” He doesn’t want to say _done for_ , and no one asks him to finish his thought.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Zenobia says. “I’m fast, and Malos can destroy anything. Between the two of us, some measly soldiers can’t do crap about our little breakout mission. They’ll be lucky to get the chance to try it.”

“Can friend not use power to get rid of door?” Tora asks.

Malos looks up from where he stands nearby, leaning against the wall while the others deliberate. “I could destroy something like that easily, yeah.” He doesn’t move, though. He looks like he’s waiting for something.

“Ooh, are you gonna use it?” Zenobia asks, eyes sparkling. “I wanna see what this power looks like!”

Rex frowns. He’d been hoping to avoid it, but maybe it was stupid to try to avoid Malos’s power to begin with. His ability to destroy anything he touches aren’t going to go away just because Rex wants them to, and it’s not like it’s not useful to have on his side.

Rex watches him for a moment before approaching him. “Malos?”

“Yeah?” He crosses his arms.

“Could you handle this door for us? I really don’t think it’s a great idea to attract guards here, even if we can handle them.”

Malos chuckles. “Not so scary now that you need it, is it?”

“Right. Sorry for freaking out about it. Can… you avoid using it on anything living, in the future?”

“If Rotbart hadn’t been moments away from snapping your body in half, I wouldn’t have bothered using it on him. It’s not effortless, you know.”

“Thank you for handling Rotbart, by the way. Don’t remember if I ever thanked you for saving my life.”

Malos scoffs and stands off the wall, cracking his fingers as the darkness sparks to life around his hand. “All that shit’s in the past. Let’s get that door open. Everyone stand back.”

Everyone takes several steps back and watches as Malos presses his hand against the door. Within moments, the door has completely crumbled away, and Dromarch pokes his head out of the new space.

“I take it this is our rescue party?” he asks as he enters the hallway.

“That’s right,” Rex says with a nod.

“My gratitude for the rescue, Master Rex. I take it you have not yet found my Lady?”

Rex shakes his head. “We were hoping you’d be able to help us with that part.”

“My Lady and I are in resonance. Finding her should be of little difficulty.” Dromarch bows his head before glancing at the others. “Perhaps before we move it would be best to learn the names of your new companions.”

“Right, of course,” he says. “This is Tora, his Blade Poppi, and Zenobia. I resonated with her after you and Nia got captured.” They each wave as Rex says their names.

“So you’re this Nia girl’s Blade?” Zenobia places her hands on her hips. Her ever-present grin remains. “Great! Let’s go find your Driver, then!”

Zenobia is all too eager to lead the charge into the next room, which is regrettably staffed by several soldiers. It’s noisy thanks to the boilers, which must have helped keep the soldiers from hearing them talk earlier.

It quickly becomes clear that they’ll have to fight. There’s too many soldiers to sneak past, and they appear to be spaced out so they’re perfectly in between them and the rest of the ship. 

Zenobia doesn’t even give anyone a chance to think before breezing into the room and taking care of it. The soldiers hardly get the chance to go collect whatever fancy tool they need to dispatch the infiltration or alert other soldiers before she has them taken care of and is back at the entrance to the room with nothing but triumph in her expression. 

“They’re still alive, right…?” Rex eyes one of the bodies warily. 

Zenobia claps him on the shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, I didn’t figure you wanted me to kill them. Don’t worry, I’d hardly be a good fighter if I didn’t know how to knock someone out without killing them!"

"That's a relief." 

“Promise me we’ll find something challenging to fight after this, though,” she says, “these guys are practically nothing to handle. I’m not convinced they’ve been trained.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for someone you can fight.” He turns to Dromarch. “Dromarch, which way are we going?”

Dromarch pads over to the metal staircase on one side of the room. “I believe that my lady is this way.”

“Alright,” Malos says, “then let’s get going.”

Dromarch leads them throughout the winding halls of the battle cruiser, and it’s not long before they come across a guarded door at the end of a hallway. He makes eye contact with Rex and nods. “My lady is behind that door,” he says, backing away so as not to get caught up in the battle that’s about to start. 

“Alright then, let’s see about handling these guys. Ready, Tora?” Rex reaches for Zenobia’s axe and waits for Tora’s nod before he rounds the corner.

The moment the soldiers see them, one of them steps forward and draws his gun. “You must be the terrorist’s friends.”

Rex glares, readying the axe just as quickly as he can manage. Beside him, Tora readies himself for battle, as well. “We’re her friends, but it’s pretty rude to call her a terrorist.”

“You can worry about politeness when all of you are in jail cells,” the other soldier says.

“No choice then,” Tora says, “Tora and friends fight!” 

The first soldier readies his gun and chuckles. “In that case, I’ll enjoy locking the lot of you up like your friend is.”

Zenobia lets out a laugh and taps Rex on the shoulder. “Rex, give me my axe. I’ll handle them myself.”

Rex glances at the soldiers ahead of him, who are busily loading their rifles, and hands the axe over to her. “Go for it.” 

“Thanks!” She grins delightedly as the wind picks up around her. “Oh, I hope they put up a fight.”

Gramps pokes his head out of Rex’s helmet to watch as Zenobia effortlessly handles the men. When she uses her axe to break one man’s gun in half, he lets out a chuckle. “Rex, my boy, it seems you have a penchant for the ones who like to destroy.”

“Really? It doesn’t seem like Malos _likes_ to destroy things all that much,” Rex says. “If anything, I think it’s more likely that he’s just gotten used to it.”

Upon the breaking of the soldiers’ second gun, the two glance at each other. One nods after a moment “We’ve been disarmed! Fall back,” one says, and the two immediately stumble away and down the hall, escaping just as fast as they can. 

Zenobia watches them go and turns to offer the axe back to Rex. “Well, that was less fun than I’d hoped. Cowards.”

“Those guys didn’t happen to drop a key, did they?” Rex asks as he watches the two soldiers round the corner and leave their sight entirely.

Malos shakes his head. “Unless someone wants to try to chase them down, it might be better for me to handle it and save us the trouble.”

Rex nods. “Yeah, I don’t think it’s worth trying to track it down if we can just open the door now. Could you handle it again?”

Malos nods and approaches the door. “Yeah, this is nothing.” He gives the door one loud knock to get Nia’s attention. “Nia, can you hear me? Whatever you do, don’t touch this door.” He waits a few moments to give Nia a chance to move away. 

“Oh, twice in one day!” Zenobia leans forward with interest.

Malos nods, tendrils of darkness beginning to wrap around his hand. “Yeah. Stand back, will you? This’ll destroy everything it touches, including you.” 

Zenobia takes the hint, backing away as Malos presses the palm of his hand flat against the door. In moments, only half the door remains, the rest having disintegrated just as easily as paper. The remainder is easily kicked out of the way, leaving nothing left between Nia and freedom. To Rex’s relief, she looks unharmed, if not a bit surprised.

“Is it safe to come closer?” She slowly moves out of the corner. “There’s not some kind of residue or something I should be worried about, right?”

“You’ll be fine.” Malos nods.

“Are you alright, Nia?” Yeah, she looks fine, but Rex can’t help but ask anyway. “Sorry we didn’t get here sooner.”

She nods. “I’m fine. Didn’t think anyone was coming for me at all.” 

“You act like we’d leave you behind.” Did she really think they'd just let her get executed?

“Thanks. Really.” She steps out of the cell with a deep inhale and inspects the new additions to Rex’s group. “I see you’ve tracked down Dromarch, too. Can’t say I recognize the others.”

“This is Tora and his artificial Blade, Poppi,” Rex says, gesturing to each. “And this is Zenobia. Gramps suggested I resonate with a second Blade.”

“I see. Good to meet all of you, and thanks for helping me out.” Nia climbs on Dromarch’s back. “We should get going. We can figure out what’s next after we get ourselves someplace that’s not probably crawling with soldiers.”

There's only one way to go that they haven't yet seen—the hall which the soldiers escaped down. Since they haven’t returned with reinforcements, it’s probably safe to assume they can get off the ship that way.

Sure enough, they find their way to a vast hangar with a large door. It’s sure to lead them outside, but right now, it’s closed, and the controls are manned by several soldiers. With Nia’s help, though, they make quick work of knocking them out and Rex and Tora manage to figure out exactly which of many potential buttons and levers raises the hangar door.

They begin making their way across the eerily empty hangar. Rex can almost taste the success of freedom as they cross the empty space.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Zenobia admits. “These guys were weak, and there were hardly any soldiers on this ship! You’d think they’d be guarding someone they’re holding for execution a little more closely. I barely got to fight anything!” 

“Execution?” Nia stops. “They… weren’t going to execute me. They were going to keep me in Mor Ardain.”

“Are you sure?” Rex asks. “But the townspeople were saying...”

Nia curses. “This is a trap, Rex. They were using me as bait to get you and Malos—” 

“Ah, I see the terrorist has some sense about her after all!” The man that stands in the hangar entrance is short, stocky, and immediately abrasive. Beside him stands a monstrous Blade; he’s even rounder than his Driver, even taller than Malos, and decked out in metal armor that looks heavy and incredibly effective. The man applauds them almost sarcastically.

“Who are you?” Malos doesn’t sound much like he’s interested in dealing with this guy. Rex doesn’t blame him, and from the expressions of the others, it’s clear that no one is very interested in dealing with him.

The man adjusts the cuffs of his sleeves in lieu of an answer. He clears his throat, prepping for what will clearly be a grand introduction. “My—”

“Consul Dughall,” Nia interrupts him. She rolls her eyes, thoroughly unimpressed with him.

He frowns, clicking his tongue. “I can introduce myself, you mangy fleabag!”

“Fleabag? Is that the worst you can come up with?” She slides off Dromarch and puts a hand on her hip. “I’ve heard better insults from twelve-year-olds.”

“While I’m sure this banter is entertaining for at least one of you, how about this "Dughall" tells us what he wants?” Malos crosses his arms.

“Of course I’m here for the Aegis! The most powerful Blade, in the hands of the Empire? There’d be no doubt left that we’re the strongest in Alrest! And I, as his new Driver, would be irrefutably the strongest Driver in the world!” 

Is this guy serious?

Malos seems to echo Rex’s unspoken sentiment. “You do realize that I’d have to actually _want_ to be your Blade, right?” He shakes his head. “You’re an inconvenience at best. Do us all a favor and don’t waste your energy.”

Dughall’s posture stiffens. “Irregardless! I will be claiming the Aegis’s power for myself, and returning the prisoner and her Blade to their cells!”

“Gap detected in Poppi’s vocabulary. Masterpon, should Poppi update database for new word?” 

Nia turns to her. “Don’t add anything, Poppi, that’s not a real word.”

“Understood. Poppi will not update vocabulary.”

Dughall’s face turns red in indignation. “Well then! If you’re done chatting, I will be retrieving the Aegis now!”

“You think I’d let you?” Rex says, backing up closer to Malos and Zenobia. “Come on, even if Malos wasn’t capable of taking you on by himself, it’s not like I’m just going to sit by while you waste our time!”

He keeps eye contact with Dughall as the beginnings of a plan form in his head. He’s not against fighting on its own, but he’d prefer to end this sooner rather than later. “Think we can get out of this without a fight?”

“Depends. What’s your plan?” Malos glances at him with enough interest to make Rex believe this could work.

Gramps pokes his head out of Rex’s helmet. “You do have a plan, don’t you, Rex?”

“I’m getting one, just give me a second.” He’s glancing around the room for some way to block their exit when he remembers the control panel they’d been messing around with to open the hangar. _Perfect._ “Malos, how well can you target your power?”

“Well enough. Where do you need me?”

Okay, good. He glances at his companions “Tora, Nia, get off the ship and try to keep Dughall and his Blade inside. Zenobia, can you help them?”

“I’d be surprised if he could withstand my wind,” she says haughtily. As if to prove her point, a gust of wind brushes past her.

“Great. Keep him distracted and on this side of the door, alright?” 

Nia and Tora nod. Nia draws her weapons, while Tora readies the drill shield that he created for Poppi. While they charge Dughall, Rex turns to Malos. 

“Malos, follow me,” he says, running to the control panel he’d spotted. “You can run fast, can’t you?”

He nods. “Again, you have to ask? What’s the plan?”

“We’re going to shut Dughall and his Blade in the ship,” Rex says, “I need you to destroy the control panel after the door starts to close.”

“Got it.”

“Now let’s see…” Rex scanned the control panel, looking for the lever Tora had pulled earlier to open the door. “Ah! There it is!” He takes a moment to make sure Nia, Tora, and the others are doing their part correctly—from this distance, he can see Dughall hiding behind his massive Blade and shooting his rifle from behind it whenever he gets the chance. Does that guy have any idea how to fight? Rex doubts he even realizes that his target isn’t in the battle anymore.

The others are all in the right spot, close enough to the door to get out without letting Dughall follow. He pulls the lever, and the moment the door starts moving, Malos rips the lever from the control panel and punches out the glass overlooking the hangar. 

“Come on, we’re going to jump."

“Right.” Not his original plan, but Malos has already shattered the glass and it’s probably faster, so he might as well go with it. He leaps out the window shortly after Malos and they make a mad dash for the door. It’s closing too fast—shouldn’t it be taking longer? At this rate, the only way they’ll make it is if—

Dughall and his Blade place themselves between them with the intent to block them, because of course they'd get in the way when the hangar door is so close to closing. No, wait, they don't have time for this—

Malos flings both out of the way. Of course he does.

With barely enough time to spare, Rex and Malos slide underneath the nearly closed hangar door. Rex pulls his arm out of the way at the last second, and with the final grinding of metal, Dughall and his Blade are trapped in the ship, away from where they can bother them. 

“That was dangerous,” Gramps says, flying out in front of him. “You could have gotten yourselves trapped in there with him!”

Rex stands up, as does Malos. “Turned out fine, didn't it?”

“And what’s stopping him from opening the door again?” Dromarch asks. Malos drops the lever on the ground in front of him carelessly.

“You know Malos, I wasn’t really expecting you to rip it off the console, I was thinking more like—”

Malos holds up a hand. “What happened to not wanting me to use my power if I don’t need to?”

He’s got a point. Is this his attempt to compromise? “Yeah. You’re right, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, kid.” He cracks his neck. “We should get moving before that moron finds some way out or sends someone after us.”

“Right. Let’s go.” 

They’ve caught their breath now, so the group walks towards the gates, cautious at first. Their caution quickly proves to be a waste—the base is practically abandoned, it’s so empty.

“That strange. Tora never see bully base so empty…”

“It seems rather strange for a military base to have no soldiers in it,” Dromarch says.

Nia can’t help but keep her weapons at the ready. “I don’t like this.”

“We don’t really have time to worry about it, do we?” Rex says. He skitters to a stop, though, when a familiar wall of blue flames erupts next to him. “Oh no…”

“What’s this?” Zenobia asks.

Malos only smirks. “Looks like Brighid’s back. And is that…” He peers at the pair of silhouettes against the wall of flames. Next to Brighid’s unmistakable form is that of someone holding the very whipswords that left burns on Rex’s face the day before.

“The Flamebringer,” Dromarch says almost gravely. “Special Inquisitor Mòrag of Mor Ardain, and Brighid’s Driver. The most powerful Driver in the empire.”

“Even scarier than regular bullies,” Tora says, his voice the quietest since Rex met him. 

“Not to worry, masterpon. Poppi will help fight against any threat!”

Rex’s hand drifts to the sword at his waist. “Together, then… they’re even more powerful.”

“Nia, wasn’t it?” Mòrag’s voice lilts across the base as she nears them deliberately. “You certainly did prove useful to me.”

Nia stiffens, glaring at Mòrag. “So you spread the rumors to lure Rex and Malos here, then?” 

“Yes, you catch on quickly,” she answers. “However, my intention is not for an unnecessary fight to take place.” She paces slightly, as if she’s choosing her next words incredibly carefully.

“An amethyst core crystal is the sign of the Aegis, the Blade with the power to send all of us to the Cloud Sea’s bed. He who can destroy whatever he so chooses. Knowing that…” She turns her gaze on Rex. “What are do you hope to achieve through use of the Aegis?”

“Why should I tell you?” What a ridiculous question.

“Allow me to repeat myself, Rex. The Aegis has the power to destroy Alrest single-handedly. In the wrong hands, the world as we know it could be rendered completely asunder.” She looks past Rex, right at Malos, who has been defiantly silent. “In fact, he’s already destroyed three continents.”

“You think I don’t know he’s dangerous?” He places himself between her and Malos, drawing his sword in his own manner of defiance. “Yeah, I’m not a fan of his past, and I know Malos has a lot of power that’s probably a lot for me to handle here, but I made a promise. You really think I’m going to break that over a past he can’t change?”

She cracks her swords. They extend, arcing out beside her like two blazing snakes, ready to strike at any moment. “How unfortunate. It seems you truly don’t understand the power you control here. I will have to restrain you by force.”

Rex grits his teeth. “I don’t “control” anything, lady, and you won’t be restraining anyone.”

The snakelike whips were apparently just a display of intimidation because she snaps the flaming whips back towards her. They solidify into their normal swordlike form, albeit still blazing as they’re lowered to her sides. Moments later, she’s lunging for Rex.

The heat of her flames barely manages to singe the end of his hair, but he luckily moves just quickly enough to narrowly avoid a slice to the face. What is with these two and going for the face? Even Malos had gotten out of the fight against Brighid before with small burns on his face, and she hadn’t been attacking him.

Nia leaps into the fray, pushing Mòrag away from Rex with the force of her attack. Tora joins them moments later and bounces around Mòrag.

“You fight Tora,” he demands, and his voice is just grating enough to convince her to focus on him for the moment. Fighting three against one probably isn’t the best idea Mòrag has ever had, if Rex has to guess. Then again, with the way Dromarch spoke of her, she might be able to handle even more opponents in a fight.

“Malos, are you ready?” Rex asks. Moments later, the ether rushes through him, activating his previously dormant sword and giving Rex the same feeling of power he’d had when fighting Mythra. Sure, he’d been able to link up with Zenobia fine when fighting alongside her earlier, but this power is on a completely different level. Malos really is more powerful than a regular Blade.

He doesn’t need any further prompting before he brings his sword down on Mòrag. She raises one sword just in time to block his strike, meeting his glare with one equally as intense, if not more condescending.

“I’d been given the impression that you couldn’t fight using the Aegis, boy,” she says, maneuvering around deftly and slicing at his arm. 

So Brighid had noticed. “Maybe so, but you’ve got a lot to learn if you think things don’t change.”

“Me?” She laughs, crossing her swords over her chest momentarily. What is she— “You are the one with much to learn, boy.” As if to punctuate her sentence, Mòrag slices outward, sending an explosion of flame that sends Tora and Nia flying. Rex is barely able to stay on his feet with Malos’s help.

“I don’t know if we can beat her like this,” Rex says when he gets a moment to breathe.

Malos nods. “What do you—heads up!”

Mòrag leaps towards Rex with swords raised. There’s not enough time to block—this time, she cuts into his shoulder with a searing blade. She must hit Malos too—he hisses audibly, if only barely.

“Rex!”

“Got it,” he replies. Malos takes the sword from him and takes his place in the fight against Mòrag for the moment. 

“Now would be a great time for you to come up with another one of those plans, Rex!” Malos doesn’t take his eyes off Mòrag.

Rex nods. If only there was some way to dampen their power…

Maybe there is. Looming over the gate is a water tower, and yesterday Tora had managed to weaken Brighid with the help of a water pump…

“Zenobia, can you help?” Rex shouts, looking around for her. She’d disappeared when the fighting started, but now she swoops in to challenge Mòrag excitedly. “Thanks! Malos, we’re going to need your power. How is everyone else holding up?” Several weak affirmations meet his ears. “Good. Get ready to run.” 

Once everyone’s on their feet and ready to go, Rex leads a mad dash for the gate. Mòrag spots them, but Rex isn’t interested in any protests to his escape.

“Zenobia, distract them!”

“Happy to help!” She sends Mòrag and Brighid stumbling back with a particularly strong gust of wind, giving the others enough time to get in position. 

In the time it takes for Mòrag and Brighid to catch up, everyone’s in place to corral them according to Rex’s plan. Zenobia flies up above the water tower and watches closely to where they end up. Malos waits for the right moment and send his power through the nearest leg of the water tower. His power climbs the leg as it consumes, and the other three legs creak in response as they tilt.

Zenobia directs Poppi, who in turn uses her jets to ensure that the tower tilts in Mòrag’s direction. The water rushes out the top, absolutely drenching the two in its wake.

“Malos and I have somewhere we need to go,” Rex says as the water pools around his feet. “And I’m not letting you or anyone else stop us.” 

When they run, they find that they aren’t pursued. Even so, Rex can’t help but keep looking over his shoulder as they make their escape. It doesn’t seem right that someone like Mòrag would just let them go when she had been so determined, even if her Blade is drenched. 

They cross most of the field before deciding it’s safe enough to settle down and find a spot to camp for the night. They find a nice spot in the woods that seems empty of monsters, and Malos and Zenobia collect some firewood.

"We'll have to keep someone on watch overnight, just to be sure," Nia says.

"We could set shifts?" Rex suggests.

Malos speaks from where he's helping Zenobia start the fire. "I'll take first watch." 

"Didn't you take watch when we slept in the forest, too?" Nia raises an eyebrow. "You should really get some sleep at some point."

"I'll be fine. Just worry about yourselves, and I'll worry about keeping people and animals away from the camp.” 

Rex leans towards Nia. "I don't think he's willing to budge on this. It might be better to drop it."

Nia sighs and relents. "Guess in the meantime I'll handle everyone's injuries. Come on Rex, you're first."

What her arts don’t heal, she bandages. While she works, Rex considers how to talk to Malos. He should probably talk to him about what’s gone down, without getting interrupted this time. 

They’ve managed to arrive at something of a compromise, but that doesn’t mean things are fixed. He’s gotten enough lectures from, well, everyone about how he needs to be able to trust in his Blades and how he should work on building that trust. Right now, though, Malos is a bit focused on rejecting Zenobia’s propositions to fight. It’s probably for the better that Rex waits until after they’ve both had a good rest, anyway.

Nia moves on to tending to Tora, who doesn’t want to sit still long enough for her to check him over for any injuries that need healing. As he relaxes and watches Nia work, a thought occurs to Rex.

“Say, Nia,” he says. “What are you going to do now? Are you still against coming with us?”

She stops, her ears flicking as she processes his question. “Seriously? You still want me around after all that?”

“We could use a healer like you on our way to Elysium, and you’re a friend.” He shrugs, leaning back on his elbows.

“The way I see it, we’re better off if we stick together,” Malos says. 

She’s silent for a few moments. “If you don’t mind all that stuff about my past, well…”

“That’s not you now, is it? I don’t know why you joined this Torna, but if you were really bad, you would've let Mythra kill me before we ever got to Gormott.”

“Let me think about it tonight, alright? You’re talking about a really big undertaking.”

It’s not a “yes”, not quite, but it’s closer than she was before they reached Torigoth, so Rex accepts it. It’s another thing that’ll have to wait until everyone’s had a chance to rest. For now, he falls asleep, content and exhausted from the events of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
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	5. Kept in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets that are best kept in the dark dip their toes into the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhh man. I had to handle some stuff before I felt comfy publishing this chapter. I'll be working on this fic as my NaNoWriMo project this year, which means less visible productivity for a month and then a LOT of productivity in December when a) I start the editing process and b) go on winter break from school and at most will have like two entire responsibilities to distract me from working on this. As always, thanks for reading and for your patience in terms of updates!

Nia watches the horizon almost wistfully. After a lot of insistence last night, she’d convinced Malos to wake her up after a few hours so she could take watch and he could get some sleep for once. To her surprise—with a note of chagrin—he’d actually listened to her, so she’s stuck watching the sunrise.

She should be focusing on making sure no harm comes to her companions, but she can’t help but be distracted. It’s for the better that she leaves Rex and his following behind and slums it with Dromarch. She decided it the moment she ended up back here—that way, they won’t have to worry about being lumped in with her, and maybe she can find someplace with plenty of Drivers where she’ll blend right in.

Still, she can’t help the guilt that’s twinging at her heart. Rex had gone out of his way and risked himself to rescue her. Twice, even. He could have gotten locked up, the same as her, for her sake, and surely that meant something. Even if that “something” was that she was liable to hold back a boy who was literally trying to reach the stars.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to stick with them for a while, though. Rex and Malos had told her their goal, to make it to Elysium, and between the two of them, it might even be possible. Rex, at least, was probably the least objectionable person to come across powers like Malos’s that she knew of. Maybe they could use a healer like her on their side. After all, she wasn’t exactly common, and…

“Lost in thought?” Malos speaks suddenly, causing Nia to yelp and leap a foot away from him, claws at the ready.

She straightens her posture with a hand over her racing heart, trying to regulate her breathing as best she can. You’d think with all that armor that guy would be a little bit easier to hear moving around, especially when everything else is near silent. Does this guy even sleep?

“You should be sleeping,” she says, keeping her voice low. “Have you slept at all since I met you?”

Malos waves his hand dismissively. “Not important. Couldn’t sleep if I tried anyway. What _is_ important is that you’re hiding something from all of us.”

Nia flinches. He couldn’t possibly have— 

Okay, Nia, deep breaths. “Why don’t we talk about this a bit further out? Wouldn’t want to wake up the others.”

He nods. “Alright. Someone should still watch camp, though.”

Nia crouches beside Dromarch, gently moving him just enough that he stirs awake. He blinks blearily at her before pulling himself to his feet. “Something wrong, my lady?”

“No, sorry to wake you,” she whispers. “Can you take over watch for a few minutes? I need to talk to Malos about… you know.”

He blinks before nodding in understanding, taking a post towards the field. “Take as long as you need.”

Nia smiles. She couldn’t ask for a better Blade, Aegis aside. “Thanks, Dromarch. We won’t be long.” 

She takes the lead in navigating away from the camp, feeling a sense of ownership over the titan they’ve spent the past few days on. Why shouldn’t she? She lived here long enough, knew the terrain well enough.

“Have you decided on whether you’re going to come with us?” Malos asks as they walk.

Nia almost scoffs. Who’s he to try easing into this? It’s clear he’s figured out Nia’s darkest secret, or at the very least is getting uncomfortably close to it. She’s got half a mind to just tell him to cut to the chase but decides to play along as well as she can.

Nia sighs. “I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem like a good idea, for either of us. For all I know, all this guff about Elysium is some elaborate plot to destroy Alrest.”

“Just because I _can_ destroy things doesn’t mean I want to,” he says, almost a growl. 

“Right, sorry. I just meant… I can’t trust any of you, and keeping me around is only going to bring more trouble into this whole plot anyways. Besides, how d’you know _I’m_ trustworthy enough to keep around?”

“To be frank, you’re the least trustworthy one here. We’ve put ourselves on the line for you, but you keep hiding shit. Never mind that you were on Mythra’s side until a few days ago, you’re clearly hiding something major. Drivers and Blades aren’t the only people in a group who need to trust each other. Whatever it is you’re trying to hide, it’s not a good look for you.”

Ouch. He’s got a point. “Like you’re much better. All we know about you is that you’re a Blade, a powerful one, and that you want to go to Elysium. Aside from that, all I know about you is you apparently don’t sleep. It’s not normal, even for a Blade.”

“Healing broken bones in a day isn’t normal for a human, so I don’t want to hear it unless you can give me an explanation that’s not ‘I’m just a fast healer’. Maybe Rex, but did you really think I would buy that?”

“You know what else isn’t normal for a Blade?” Nia places a hand on her hip, determined to turn this around. “Getting injured, and those injuries staying. That’s not an Aegis thing. Not even a Blade thing.”

“They’re nothing. I just got bumped up a bit while we were breaking your ass out of jail.”

“And another thing. The burn on your face is the same as Rex’s was when I was healing it. Maybe having similar burns would normally make sense, but they’re the exact same. Can you explain that, or are you the only one immune to having to build trust around here?” 

Malos opens his mouth to fire back but instead lunges for Nia. She yelps and sidesteps, but he grabs her hood and pulls her toward him with enough force that she stumbles and lands on the ground next to him. She rights herself, prepared to give him a piece of her mind, and whorls around to face him. The rage in her blood turns to ice as she sees the shadow looming over them.

Standing before them is a giant feris with a vicious snarl on its face. Once, Nia might’ve known instantly if the local Gormotti had a name for it, might have its name out of her mouth before she even registered it, but her focus now is on the weapons she _doesn’t_ have on her belt. She’s got a few knives intended for basic things, but she doubts they’d even make a dent in the monster before it takes out a chunk of her arm. 

Malos places himself between her and the feris with one fist clenched. He’s not got his sword, and Nia assumes it must be back at camp with Rex. It seemed sensible at the time, but now that they’re in a small bit of mortal danger, she can’t help but curse him for it. At least, not until she glances at Malos’s hand and sees an arguably more effective method of solving their little problem.

Rex might not be thrilled about the nature of Malos’s power, but Nia feels nothing but relief seeing the small sphere of darkness forming in Malos’s tensed hand. It might not be an ideal power, but she’d rather the feris die a gruesome death than her.

Malos never gets the chance to use it, though. Seconds later, Zenobia stands behind the Feris, the only warning given being a sudden breeze. She carries her axe effortlessly in one hand, eyes glinting with something distinctly dangerous and excited.

“Now what are _you two_ up to on a walk like this?” Zenobia asks. “Early morning exercise?”

The feris turns on Zenobia. Even if the danger has been averted for Malos, he keeps his power of destruction on one hand and his eyes on the monster. It stalks towards Zenobia and lunges, but she merely sidesteps it and bashes it on the back with the end of her axe. It lets out a growl and whorls around to face her, but she’s hardly even focused on it.

Instead, Zenobia glances over her shoulder at the two. “Seriously though, wasn’t Nia supposed to be on watch? Aren’t the two of you a little far from camp?”

Nia shrugs. “There was something I had to confirm with Malos, and I thought it’d be better to ask him about it away from the others.”

“Fair enough,” Zenobia says, mirroring her shrug.

Malos lets the sphere disperse into the air, no longer considering the feris a threat now that Zenobia seems keen and equipped to handle it. “You’re really just going to leave it at that?”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Zenobia says, “I’m curious as hell what you could _possibly_ have to talk about that you walked _this_ far from camp to do it—” –she grunts as she bludgeons the feris to the side— “—but the two of you are stubborn enough that I doubt even I could pry it out of either of you.”

Well. She’s right that Malos is particularly stubborn, at least.

It doesn’t feel right to respond to Zenobia. At least, not when she needs to focus on the enemy before her. Malos seems to have the same though, because the both of them stayed silent and watched as she continues to toy with the monster before her.

She eventually gets bored of it, however, and it’s not long before the monster’s head rolls after one swift, decisive movement from Zenobia. She looks over her shoulder with a twinkle in her eye that reads distinctly satisfied.

“Thanks for the entertainment there, you two. If I were you, I’d return to the camp, especially since you’re unarmed. Everyone else will be up soon, anyways.” Zenobia leans on the axe with one hand, like she didn’t just brutally kill a monster well-known enough around these parts to have a name that Nia _swears_ she knows, she’s just got too much adrenaline to really _think_ —

Zenobia’s right, though—the sun has risen properly, now, and the light dances over the plains gently as the wildlife begins stirring awake. Soon, it’ll be bright enough for Tora and Rex to wake up, and she _really_ doesn’t want to try to explain away her early morning walk to more people.

“Yeah, let’s head back,” Malos says. He gives Nia a pointed glance that clearly says we’re not done here, and she nods in understanding. 

She stops to thank Zenobia for saving them from the feris (the name ‘Bernard’ comes to mind now that she’s not on the verge of death) and trails after Malos. Zenobia stays behind, citing that she’s got a bit more hunting to handle this morning before she’s properly awake.

Nia doesn’t bother making conversation with Malos as he leads the way back to camp. She’ll need some time to find a better lie to cover up what he’s dangerously close to figuring out, if he hasn’t already, and contemplates some way to get him to listen to her, too.

She hopes he doesn’t think she’s about to just let his injuries go because they got attacked. She’s a _healer_ , Architect’s sake, it’d be like a crime to let one of her travelling companions go untreated.

The thought sends a small smile across her face as they come across the camp. It might not be so bad to have companions, and like Rex said before he went to sleep last night, they _do_ need her around. Maybe she could stand to join them after all.

Rex and Tora are awake, but focused on something to do with Poppi, so Nia crouches next to Dromarch. “What do you think about sticking with these guys for a while?” she asks quietly.

“I will follow wherever you go, my lady,” Dromarch says, bowing his head, “however… how did your conversation with Master Malos go?” 

“I’m worried, to tell the truth, but we can talk more about it later.”

“Hey, you two!” Rex approaches them. “Tora knows someone who can help us get out of Gormott.” He pauses, and from his expression, Nia can tell that he’s choosing his next words carefully. “Have you made your decision?”

“Yeah,” Nia says, pushing herself to her feet. “Where’d you say this guy lives?”

“Over towards Greatspine Boundary. He apparently owns a shipyard out there.” 

Nia nods slowly. “Sounds like a plan. Not like we can go back to town after all that, anyhow.”

“So then you’re going to come along with us. To Elysium, I mean.”

“Yeah,” she says. “Can’t hurt, right? At least, not much worse than staying here.”

He cracks a smile. “Great! We’ll be glad to have you on board.”

“Huh? Was Nia not staying with us?” Zenobia asks, appearing suddenly as usual.

Nia shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it. How’d your hunting go?”

Zenobia scoffs. “It was completely boring. After the tyrant I bagged that was attacking you and Malos, everything else was either really weak or totally not interested. It’s no fun fighting if your opponent’s not into it all the way.” 

“Nia? You and Malos?” Rex raises a curious eyebrow. “Did I miss something?”

Nia withholds the cringe that threatens to break her composure. Can’t make it seem more suspicious than it already is, so she improvises. “I went out for a brief walk this morning to clear my head and asked him to come with me. You know, just in case something happened.” 

“Well, my dear,” Azurda says, poking his head out of Rex’s helmet, “it sounds to me like something happened anyway.”

“Oh, it happened, alright,” Zenobia says cheerfully. “I got a good warmup this morning because they got attacked by a _huge_ feris. He wasn’t much, but it was the best fight I’ve had since you let me help out with the Flamebringer yesterday.” 

Zenobia seems like she’s going to turn this into a longer-winded story than Nia wants to deal with, so Nia tunes her out completely and looks for something else to do.

Nia’s eyes land on Malos. He seems rather busy cleaning up their campfire, and besides, she’d rather avoid him right now if she can. Zenobia’s still talking to Rex, so all that leaves is Tora and Poppi. Admittedly, she should get to know them better since they seem pretty keen on joining Rex in his travels. 

She decides that it’s the best alternative, so she approaches them cautiously, racking her brain for a conversation-starter as she does so.

“Tora, right?” she asks as she approaches.

He looks up from Poppi’s arm, which he’s still tinkering with. He’d hardly stopped work on the artificial Blade long enough for her to get a proper look at his injuries the night before when she was tending to everyone. “That right. And friend is Nia.”

“Poppi also here!”

Nia sits on the log next to Poppi, watching as Tora messes with some screws. “Are you busy? Just figured I’d talk to you two while waiting for Zenobia to finish up her story time over there.”

“No, Tora happy to talk to friend while working on Poppi!”

Nia leans back on her elbows, studying Poppi carefully. “So, what’s the story with Poppi? I get that she’s an artificial Blade, but it can’t have been easy to build something like her.”

“That right!” Poppi says, placing her free hand on her hip proudly. “Poppi latest innovation in Nopon technology. Masterpon put great care in building Poppi, so Poppi can do everything Blade can, plus more.”

“Poppi is life’s work of Tora,” Tora continues, gently turning Poppi to the side so he can adjust some other part or screw or something. “But, Grampypon and Dadapon do most of work towards creation of Poppi’s ether furnace.”

“Ether furnace?”

“Poppi’s ether furnace is why Poppi can do Bladey things. Poppi can produce and process ether energy in chest like Blade.”

Tora puts the wrench in his wing down, wiping his forehead. “There! Poppi, please test functions of arm!”

Poppi smiles graciously at him, moving the arm in question carefully. “Arm moves with ease now, as expected of Masterpon.”

“Yay!” He bounces on his feet, turning to where Rex is still talking to Zenobia and Dromarch. “Rex-Rex! Tora and Poppi ready to leave for Unclepon’s shipyard now!”

Rex nods and waves a hand in acknowledgement, stopping to stretch before their band of travelers regroups. 

“Does that mean everyone’s ready to go, now?” he asks as Nia lazily joins the group. 

No one protests, so he grins widely and pulls something from his pocket—Nia thinks it’s some type of compass, but she’s almost afraid to ask. She’s not really interested in any more long-winded technical conversations, especially in the short span of time everyone’s actually been awake today.

After Rex tinkers with his compass some more, they set off for Umon’s shipyard. Nia falls silent as she follows, considering her upcoming conversation with Malos carefully. She’ll need a lot of thinking and a lot of luck if she wants this to end well.

~

Umon’s shipyard is nowhere near as impressive as Nia expects. She’s never really bothered coming out past Greatspine Boundary before—never had the need, especially given that this particular shipyard appears to be the _only_ thing out here, other than a lot of very angry, very aggressive birds and a few bunnits.

The “shipyard” is more of a hut overlooking the Cloud Sea, just the right size to fit a single small titan ship in at a time, with some space outside for maybe one or two additional ships. To be fair, it’s the largest shipyard she’s seen in recent memory (not to mention that it’s the _only_ shipyard she’s seen in recent memory), and it might even look nice if someone cleaned it up sometime. 

Tora walks in the shack like he owns the place. Or maybe like his uncle owns the place. Nevertheless, Nia and the others follow him inside, but it soon becomes apparent that Umon simply… isn’t there. No one had seen anyone outside when they approached the building, so Tora calls out for him in the shack, empty except for their little group and the titan ship-in-progress in the center of the building.

“Unclepon! Unclepon Umon?” Tora calls out into the building. When no response comes, he frowns and looks up at Nia and the others like they might have some sort of explanation for this.

Nia shrugs. “Maybe he’s out. Guy can’t spend all his time out here, after all.”

“…I guess we’ll just have to wait for him here,” Rex suggests.

“Right. Poppi, initiate rest mode!” Tora says. Poppi nods before sitting right where she stands, her eyes temporarily dimming as she begins to rest. Tora… probably could have had her move someplace that’s not in the middle of the floor first.

Nia stretches, considering the thought. Tora probably had the right idea with just resting during this time. She finds a spot on the wall that’s not covered by furniture or anything and sits, legs outstretched. 

“Think I’m going to get some rest, myself,” she explains to no one in particular, “since I was up early on watch ‘nd all.” As she speaks, Dromarch approaches and lays himself across her legs, resting his head on his paws. She leans against the wall and listens to the others planning how they’ll pass the time. 

“Well, while we have the time, Malos,” Zenobia starts in a lilting tone, “we should spar outside! Get some training in!”

“Go spar with some of the birds out there. I’m sure they’ll fight you,” Malos responds, his voice carefully devoid of any semblance of interest.

“Oh come _on_ ,” she says, borderline whines, “you’ve gotta fight me sometime.”

“Do I now? I don’t recall ever agreeing to this.”

“You said you would if I—”

“-- _if_ you ever got to a certain level. You’re not there yet. Go work on yourself before trying to fight me.”

“If I may,” Gramps’s voice is added to the mix, “it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Rex to practice battling with one or both of you while we have this time.”

“Sounds good to me,” Rex says, “Zenobia?”

She sighs. “Fine. If Malos won’t fight me, then I guess I’ll have to make do. Come on, Rex, let’s go train.” 

“Tora want to watch Rex-Rex fight!”  
Soon, the shack falls into a comfortable quiet, and Nia drifts off, grateful for the chance to nap.

When Nia awakes, she’s staring an unfamiliar Nopon in the face. If not for Dromarch sleeping across her lap, she’d attack on instinct. He’s actually quite heavy, though, so she resorts to her next best action—she screams, alerting Poppi and Dromarch as the Nopon also screams.

It isn’t long before Tora, Malos, and the others come running to see what the commotion’s about. Tora takes one glance at the two of them before running up and placing himself between her and the stranger, and it finally registers to Nia that she might be the one who’s doing something weird here.

“Unclepon! This friend of Tora.”

“Tora? That you?” the strange Nopon asks, already significantly calmed. Nia feels calmer, too, now that she’s not reacting to some random stranger staring at her as she sleeps.

Tora flashes a smile. “Good to see Unclepon!” 

“It is Tora! It has been many weeks since last saw Tora.”

Poppi, now officially out of rest mode, stands next to Tora with a curious look on her face. Dromarch takes that at his cue to stand and stretch, allowing Nia to get up off the floor.

“Yes, Tora very busy! Was finishing Grampypon’s and Dadapon’s work.”

“You don’t mean—artificial Blade?” Umon studies Poppi.

Poppi waves with her arm fully outstretched, leaning over as she does. 

Nia can’t help but wonder whether Tora programmed her to move like that for a _reason_ or if it was just because he thinks it’s cute. She hopes it’s the former.

“My name Poppi. Pleased to meet Unclepon of Masterpon.” 

As Nia watches the conversation devolve into half-truths, she slowly sidesteps over to where Rex stands in the doorway. It’s not really ideal to get involved if she doesn’t have to.

“Why do I get the feeling this is just barely going to work out for us?” she whispers to him as she keeps her eyes on the Nopon. Tora’s floundering for some explanation to cover why he’s not just getting a ship in town like a sensible person would. Maybe someone not running from the military.

“Should we try to help Tora keep track of the lies he’s telling here?” Rex whispers back.

She considers it. For a long moment, she seriously considers helping out the little guy. “Nah, he’ll do well enough without us, right?”

“Yeah, probably.” Rex turns his attention to how the conversation’s going, and Nia takes the cue to pay attention as well.

“Umon _does_ have a spare ship, however…” He rocks on his feet for a moment. “Umon just bring back last of ship ingredients. Will need time to finish work on it!”

“How long for ship to be ready?” Tora asks.

“Should take one hour! But if Tora and friends return in good condition, Umon is happy to let friends borrow for small boaty-jaunt!”

“Is okay if Tora and friends wait around area while Unclepon finishes ship?” 

Umon nods. “That not problem. While friends wait, Tora must tell Umon more about Poppi. Artificial Blade great accomplishment! Umon never thought…”

As Umon and Tora speak, Nia takes the chance to tune them out and figure out what to do with the spare time she has before they depart for the World Tree.

Somehow, the thought makes her stomach sink, rather than flutter with the excitement you’d expect from such a lofty goal. She _did_ agree to come with them, but… Somehow, she doesn’t feel like getting to Elysium will be as simple as find a boat to get to the World Tree, and then climb the thing. Something _has_ to go wrong.

No use thinking about it now, she supposes. She decides to wait outside for some fresh air, and maybe with Dromarch’s help she’ll find some wild plants nearby that are safe to eat. Would be nice, given the way her stomach is growling at her from not having eaten anything substantial in…

When was the last time she ate again? The ardainians had given her a small plate of food when she was locked up, but it was hardly substantial, and before that it must’ve been nearly a day.

Dromarch follows her in her search for wild plants. It’ll be a faster solution to look for food rather than to think about when she last had any, and with any luck, the others’ll leave the two of them alone so she can talk to him properly about the situation with Malos.

They follow along the ridge of rocks, inspecting plants for any buries or wild vegetables wordlessly until Nia’s sure Rex and the others aren’t coming with her. The moment she sees them go the other way, she starts explaining the situation to Dromarch.

“I’m pretty sure Malos has figured out that I’m not like the others,” she says, running a gloved hand over the petals of a flower in the grass. Dawn Hydrangea. Useful for medicine, not so much for if you’re hungry. She moves on to other plants.

Dromarch paws at some flora. “Has he told you what he plans to do about it?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “We got attacked before we could get that far. But I couldn’t throw him off the idea.”

“What do _you_ plan to do about it?” He uses his paw to knock a fruit down from a stalk absently.

She picks up the orange he rolls towards her with a smile, pocketing it to inspect the plant further for more. She should see if Malos knows how to turn these into her favorite food sometime, it’s been a bit too long since she’s had any.

“To be honest, I haven’t figured it out. He doesn’t seem to want the others to know about his issue with the wounds he’s been incurring for some reason, so maybe I could come to an agreement with him. You know, ‘I won’t tell if you won’t’ or… something.”

“Did you happen to talk to him about that, my lady?”

She sighs. “I tried, but we got interrupted before he could give any sort of response. I’ll bring it back up next time I get the chance. He acted like he wanted to continue the conversation, so…”

“Then, have you considered how you will explain the situation to him?”

“No, I haven’t figured it out yet.” 

“Well, now is as good a time as any to consider it.”

She clicks her tongue in annoyance. She knows better than anyone the magnitude of the situation she’s in, which is _why_ she doesn’t know what to do.

“I don’t think I can get around telling him the truth. I decided to stay with these guys for now, but if I stay with them much longer, Malos might just tell the others about me before I can convince him otherwise.”

Dromarch shifts, searching a wider area. “Then perhaps it would be best for you to tell him yourself and request his silence on the matter.”

Honestly, Nia hates the idea. The key of the lecture he was trying to give her was about trusting them, and as hypocritical as he was in saying it, she doesn’t think he’ll be so willing to keep such a major secret hidden from the others. But if she doesn’t ask him not to talk, then there won’t be anything stopping him from telling Rex and the others…

Nia swallows her anxiety. “Yeah, maybe it would.” She’d just have to find the right words to say it to him, so that maybe he won’t out her secret to people she’d only just resolved herself to travelling with.

She falls into an easy silence with Dromarch and the plants, collecting enough food to stock for a day or so. The two eventually decide to return to the shipyard, food in tow, just in time to see Tora come outside looking for them. He certainly is a bouncy little Nopon.

“Friends! Ship finally ready for boaty-jaunt!” 

“Really?” Rex shouts from nearby, where he’s been practicing alongside Malos and Zenobia. 

“All right!” Zenobia calls. “What are we waiting for, then? Let’s get going!”

As Nia closes the gap between her and the shipyard, Rex, Zenobia, and Malos do the same. Soon, they’re all stood next to the ship, the mental pressure of their goal almost too much to bear.

Well, it probably is for Rex. Nia shrugs and steps on, quietly thanking Umon as she does. Dromarch, of course, follows.

“By the way, I got some food for everyone while I was waiting,” Nia says. “Hope everyone likes fruit.”

“We’ll live,” Malos says, accepting one as he joins her on the deck. 

Rex does the same, smiling gratefully. “Thanks, Nia. And Umon, too.”

“Not a problem.” Nia shakes her head. “Dromarch and I were looking for food, and it didn’t seem right to leave the rest of you hungry if we could help it.” She really hadn’t been planning on sharing much, not with how hungry she still was, but with Dromarch’s help, there was more than enough.

After all, she was traveling with them now. It’d be rude, right?

She chooses to ignore the knowing look Dromarch gives her as the others join her on the ship and retreats into the cabin of the ship as they set off. The World Tree awaits.

~

The ship Umon lent them was reasonably comfortable. Rex finds himself at the helm the majority of the time, making sure that they’re really headed straight for the World Tree. No maps needed, no compass to guide their way.

It feels a little surreal to believe everything that had happened these past few days. Meeting Malos only to learn that everything he’d dreamed of for the world was really possible. And now, he was on a ship set for the World Tree, so that they might reach Elysium.

Nia had gone off somewhere, taking Dromarch with her without a word to anyone else since they departed. Malos is equally elusive, having disappeared soon after they set off. Tora has decided to stay with Poppi on the deck, watching the Cloud Sea and some minor titans pass by. 

Gramps stretches out on the helm before Rex, perhaps also sore from their current setup. The extra weight pulling at his neck had seemed like nothing when Gramps first crawled into his helmet, but he can’t help but think it’s getting to be uncomfortable for the both of them. Rex swears he’s got a permanent bruise on his back from where the helmet keep hitting him with the added weight.

The World Tree looms over them now, so close that Rex can now see the chasm in the Cloud Sea separating them from its base. They’ll have to find a way to get across the chasm before they can even begin the climb. 

Zenobia joins the two of them on deck. “So that’s it, isn’t it? The World Tree.”

“Yeah,” Rex says. “And at the top, Elysium.”

“You’ve talked to me about your dreams for Elysium before,” she says, eyes focused on the Tree, “but what does _Malos_ want with it?”

Rex takes one hand off the wheel, rubbing the back of his neck. “He’s sort of explained it to me, I think. I didn’t ask for more information at the time, but he mentioned that he’s trying to escape Mythra permanently. Something about how she’s… damaged, and she needs him to fix it.” 

She nods slowly. This is probably the calmest she’s been since resonating with Rex. 

“And you’re okay with him using you to get there?”

“Yeah,” he nods. “I mean, we’re kind of using each other, aren’t we? And he’s saved my life twice now.”

“Twice? What was the second time?”

Rex taps the core crystal on his chest gently. She nods in understanding.

“I was wondering the story behind that. Thought it might have been the Rotbart situation, but I guess it makes more sense that it happened before.”

“Yeah, it was how I met him.” Rex’s hand remains over the purple ‘x’ as he struggles not to shudder at the memory. “I got… killed, and I woke up to find him, saying he could save me if I’d only take him to Elysium.”

“Just like that? You’re not worried he might be tricking you?” She doesn’t press for details about his death, which he’s thankful for.

“Nah, if he was tricking me, there were plenty opportunities to let me die before this. Besides, even you told me I need to trust him.”

She lets out a quiet laugh. “Yeah, I guess I did. Don’t lose that trust, okay?”

“I’ll try not to.” He glances over his shoulder at a noise—Malos strides out onto the deck, expression serious as ever.

“So, kid,” he says. “We’re here.”

“Let’s figure out how to cross that chasm, and then we’ll make it to Elysium, no probl—”

Rex’s words die in his throat at the sight of a dark mass that rises out of the Great Void. Night fell some time ago, but he doesn’t need the extra visibility to tell when something is big and decidedly unfriendly.

Malos seems to recognize the danger better than anyone else, shoving Rex out of the way and grabbing the wheel to turn the ship. “We’re leaving,” he barks.

“Wait, but we’re so close—”

Rex never finishes his protest. The beast, whose silhouette looks almost like a gigantic aspar, launches its tail at the ship, letting out a roar that shakes the titan ship nearly as much as the blow to its side.

Rex falls to the ground as the ship is sent off course. Malos can’t seem to turn the ship fast enough.

Rex does his best to steady himself as the ship’s tremors throw him, checking on everyone as best he can from where he is. Malos stands strong, pulling the wheel with the kind of expertise you only get with adrenaline. Zenobia, luckily, thought to grab Gramps when the ship began to shake, and Tora and Poppi both appear at a glance to be conscious and functional.

“We’re leaving,” Malos says firmly. “That’s not my artifice.”

“Your what?” 

“Now’s not the time for questions! If we stay here, we’ll die. That’s all the information you need right now.”

Malos, as usual, is exactly right. Between the monster thrashing them away from the World Tree, and the additional obstacle that now rises firmly out of the Cloud Sea—a titan, not one Rex has seen before—all they can do is try to navigate away and stay on board. 

This ship wasn’t made for tight maneuvers or outrunning whatever it was Malos called the monster. They narrowly avoid the monster’s attack, only to find that the strength of its movements have sent the Cloud Sea rushing and their ship tumbling. 

The titan takes the opportunity in stride. It opens its massive maw, welcoming them in as if they’re nothing but a morsel to be inhaled. As the ship tumbles into the titan’s mouth, Rex and the others are thrown violently to the floor. 

Rex can’t help but perform a cursory look at everyone else to make sure they’re okay. His thoughts stop on Nia and Dromarch, who are certainly having a hell of a time inside given they probably don’t know what’s going on, but then his eyes land on Malos, who’s finally given way to the relentless momentum of the ship.

He watches in almost horror as Malos’s head hits the floor. The impact is so hard that _Rex_ can almost feel it. Maybe he’s lost cognizance of his movement at this point, because it feels real—pain blooming across his skull, vision blinding white and suffocating dark in the span of what must be less than a second. 

Before he can register the hit to his own head that must surely have caused this, Rex passes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
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	6. A Moment in the Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Aegis party recuperates after crash landing on an unfamiliar titan. A secret spends just a moment in the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhha this took so much determination to get me to start editing it. Sorry for the wait, lmao. Next chapter will be out soon, and not, like, two months soon this time. Happy new year, and I hope y'all had happy holidays!

Malos is just about tired of waking up to find that his Driver is nowhere to be found and that he’s covered in injuries that aren’t his. He’s got a head count on three of their number, leaving the other half of their group—Rex, Nia, Dromarch, and Azurda—nowhere in sight. The lack of light isn’t much helping his sight, to be fair.

From the way his muscles protest when he shifts to peer more closely through the darkness, it’s clear Rex had a rough landing. Every movement hurts, enough to be a serious annoyance. Bruises press against his armor, scrapes sting in annoying places. Not to mention his head _screams_ in pain, almost blinding in its intensity. It’s hard to tell whether that pain is Rex’s or his own, or if maybe they’re compounding on each other.

As if his headache wasn’t bad enough, Zenobia shuffles awake nearby, pushing herself up and surveying the area. She’s no worse for the wear, thanks to the regenerative power that Blades normally have, but it’s clear the pain lingers with the way she groans in pain. The others are all still down, leaving him effectively alone with the most battle-crazy Blade he’s ever had the misfortune to meet.

He curses his luck as he stands. Maybe if he can find Nia and Dromarch, they can heal everyone and the others can bother each other, instead of him.

Malos tries to think back. Nia and Dromarch had been inside when the ship crashed, so they’re probably closer to the ship. What looks like its remains are silhouetted against the little light that comes in towards what must be the titan’s mouth. 

_Father, it’s so hard to see like this…_

He pointedly ignores Zenobia as she gets her bearings. Maybe if he doesn’t speak to her, she’ll get the hint and not talk to him yet. If she starts asking him to fight again, he might just put her back out of consciousness.

He begins walking toward what he assumes is what’s left of the ship, making finding the group’s healer his goal. He doesn’t quite get far before Zenobia puts a nix to his ‘don’t talk and maybe she won’t either’ plan.

“Hey, Malos! Wait up!” She scampers up to him. As she approaches, it becomes easier to see Azurda’s unconscious form cradled in her arms carefully. “Where are you going?”

He heaves a sigh. Her voice is infinitely more irritating right now. “Nia and Dromarch are probably closer to the ship. I’m looking for them, because they’re a lot more useful to us awake right now than anyone else.”

“Ohh,” she says, nodding slowly. There’s this almost vacant look in her eyes as she processes it. “That’s smart! So, you’re looking for them. Who else are we missing?”

“Rex.” Maybe if he keeps his answers short, she won’t ask so many questions and this conversation can be over with faster. 

“Wait, shouldn’t we look for Rex first?”

“He’s our _Driver_ ,” he answers, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re alive, aren’t you? So he’s alive.”

“Yeah, but…” She rocks on her heels for a moment. “You don’t think he’s hurt?”

He grunts. “If he is, it’s nothing life-threatening.”

Zenobia mumbles something that sounds awfully sassy under her breath, continuing to follow him. She even wades through the water with him, looking around for Nia and Dromarch.

“You really are some crazy powerful, crazy smart Aegis, huh?”

“What’s that?” he asks, not listening very intently as he wades to the remains of the ship’s trashed cabin.

She shrugs, following him. “I mean, you’re so quick to take the reins and get control of whatever the situation is. A really great leader, honestly. It’s hard to believe you’re _not_ the most confident, powerful thing alive when you act so much like it.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever given any indication that I’m not. The only one who can match me is Mythra, and not like she is now.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be a good match for you!” She grins, though it’s only barely visible in the dark.

“Yeah, keep dreaming, Zenobia.”

Malos stops before the remains of the cabin, which is surprisingly still very intact. There’s a few broken boards closing up just enough of the entrance to make it impossible for those inside to get out, and when he crouches down to peer in, he can’t see anything except the faint blue glow of ether.

“Are they in there?” Zenobia asks, leaning over him. He nods silently, grabbing at a board and steadying himself to rip it away. Once he’s pried it off with a grunt, he tosses it to the side, letting it land with a splash into the water.

Zenobia crouches beside him, peering into the impenetrable darkness with a squint. “Nia? Dromarch?”

There’s a shuffling from within the cabin, and the ether glow shifts with it. Nia’s voice, drenched in grogginess, filters through the darkness. “Whoever was steerin’ when all that went down is banned from it in the future.”

Zenobia laughs instantly. “Well, Malos, looks like you’re banned from steering our ships from here on out.”

He rolls his eyes. “The ship got attacked when we were approaching the World Tree. We’ve washed up in a titan. I can give you more details later, but we’ve got some injuries. Can you move?”

She grumbles, shifting a bit. There’s more movement, and then nothing. “Dromarch’s passed out on my lap. I can climb out myself once I can get him off me. You’ve already gotten everyone tracked down, yeah? Made sure no one’ll die if I take a minute or two?”

Zenobia has a triumphant smile on her face. “Mister Aegis here insisted on tracking down the healer first. We’ve no idea where Rex is, just that he’s alive for now.”

“Why don’t you two go track him down while Dromarch and I get moving?” Nia suggests.

_Together?_ Malos wants to ask in disgust. Zenobia’s voice has been nothing but painful since he woke up. He really doubts she’ll shut up now.

“That sounds like a _great_ idea. Come on, Malos, leave the girl to her Blade. Let’s see if we can’t find Rex in this dark cave, huh?” Zenobia straightens her back and turns, looking into the rest of the cave like she can see anything through it.

He sighs and stands, doing much of the same. “There’s a really obvious way to find him.”

Her hand finds her hip as she kicks up a breeze to float herself. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

He’s just about to bring his affinity link into existence when someone begins moving again. Azurda stretches on Zenobia’s shoulder before fluttering up into the air. “Good Architect, that was quite the experience!” He ruffles a bit.

“Oh, great! You’re awake!” Zenobia says. “Malos is too grumpy, come look for Rex with me.”

Azurda chuckles. “Well, I see you two are getting on well. All right then. Where to, Zenobia?”

“Malos seems to have a good idea of how to find Rex, so let’s leave that to him and go check on Tora and Poppi.”

“Lead the way, then.”

Azurda is some kind of gift from Father himself. He has to be. He and Zenobia go off into the darkness, leaving him behind, and he gets precious moments of quiet before starting his proper search for his Driver.

A moment’s focus blurs his vision—or has it been blurry this whole time?—but his affinity link flickers into existence, a gentle blue that pulls him further into the titan’s mouth. He follows the link, even as he struggles to maintain it.

The kid’s been working on his trust, but apparently, not enough. Maybe if Rex had been trying a little harder, Malos would be having an easier time of trying to keep the link from such a distance. Holding the link is only worsening his headache, though, so he memorizes the direction and walks, intermittently rekindling the link to Rex to make sure he’s going the right way.

Father, he hopes Tora stays down until this headache clears. He doesn’t think he can handle that Nopon’s voice right now. 

Eventually, he does find Rex, who’s definitely worse for the wear. Malos knew he’d be—if he had a lower pain tolerance, he might not be moving around right now, either. He scoops up his Driver—better to bring him to Nia, rather than bring her to him—and winces. Boy’s got some messed up injuries right now, and the shift causes Malos’s own injuries to sting in response. He carries on and turns back around the other way, spotting Zenobia in the distance. 

“Found him!”

To his surprise, Nia echoes back—“stay where you are and _don’t move him_. I’ll be right over to heal him.”

Malos wordlessly sets Rex back down, adjusting his position so it looks like he landed that way. He sits next to Rex, and when Nia calls out again to find him, not long after he hears Tora’s voice grate through the darkness, he re-activates the affinity link to guide her by its light.

“Alright, I’m on my way over.” She trudges over in a few minutes, crouching down next to Rex’s body, and Dromarch sits in the space beside her, watching dutifully. “Can you keep that link going? It’s hard to work in the dark.”

“Yeah, no problem.” He won’t mention how his head pounds in protest. He can handle it in silence.

She nods, carefully shifting Rex so that she can see his wounds, and leans in close. “Thanks. Don’t suppose you could tell me anything about his state right now.”

“He hit his head pretty hard, from the looks of it. All kinds of minor scrapes and bruises. Nothing broken that I can tell.”

“Right, got it. What about you?”

He pauses, taking a moment to properly understand the question. “I’m fine.”

“Really?” 

Malos refuses to let her incredulous looks intimidate him. “Yeah. Really.” 

Nia lets out a heavy sigh. “Right. Dromarch?”

Dromarch nods, and their affinity link blazes to life—a gold chain between them, illuminating the nearby area with its strong light.

The air crackles with a soothing energy, illuminating Nia further in a different, softer blue light that washes over her, then over Malos. The light soothes him, like a shoulder rub would, or maybe some really good food that he didn’t have to bust his ass to make for once.

“What are you doing? I said I was fine.”

“He’s probably got a concussion from when he hit his head. You do too, not to mention the rest of the injuries. You need healing, and then I’ll heal him. Now stop talking, I’m trying to work.”

He shuts up and lets her work her arts in silence. Her arts ebb away his headache, and soon his armor feels less uncomfortable to wear. When she’s done, she turns and gives Rex the same treatment, washing him over in light. His wounds close beneath the gentle aura, and Rex stirs awake in its glow.

He groans, pushing himself to sit up and look around in the darkness. “What… happened…?”

Nia gently, yet firmly, pushes him down, shaking her head. “You hit your head pretty hard when we crashed,” she says. “You’re going to get some rest so you can recover. We’re going to have to stick around here for the night, and then tomorrow you can try to pull the whole Aegis driver thing. No buts.”

“All right,” he says, shifting to adjust his comfort level. He removes his helmet from its vest, setting it beside him. “How’re you and the others holding up?”

“Fine, I had some troubles getting out of the cabin when we crashed, but I managed. Tora’s up and moving. Little fluffball had me thinking he was knocked out, but he was just napping.” She rolls her eyes. “He’s running maintenance on Poppi right now, and Zenobia’s over there making sure he doesn’t do anything too strenuous to aggravate his condition.”

“Gramps?”

“He’s fine. He’s resting over with Zenobia. Malos, Dromarch, and I are going to go looking for food and some dry wood to start a fire and get everyone fed after we move you closer to the others,” she says, adjusting her clothes with a scrunched nose. She’s still got soaked clothes from having been passed out in the water. 

“Alright,” he says, moving again. Nia shoots him a pointed glare.

Nia clicks her tongue as the affinity link disappears as quickly as it came, her work having been finished for now. “Malos, can you carry him over to the others?”

He nods and scoops Rex up, despite his protests. 

“I can walk!”

Malos grunts. “Yeah, but you shouldn’t. Don’t struggle, you’re making it harder for both of us.”

Rex listens and calms himself long enough for Malos to carry him to the others. Malos sets him down next to Poppi and turns to Zenobia. “Do me a favor and make sure he doesn’t move around too much. If any monsters come this way, you’ve got my permission to kill them quickly.”

She pumps her fist triumphantly, eyes lighting up. “Just send ‘em my way! Bonus points if they’re _really_ strong!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m gonna go hunt now.”

The light leaves her eyes just as quickly. “Wait, hold on, why can’t I be the one going hunting?”

But Malos is already walking away. “No. We’re going to have to carry a lot, and we need someone who can fight to stay here with the injured and protect them.”

She visibly deflates before crossing her arms and letting out a deep sigh. “Fine, whatever. Next time, _you_ get to stay with the injured.”

“Am I now.” It’s not a question, and she doesn’t take it as one, turning to stew in her annoyance quietly for once.

“Since you three are going to go looking for food, here,” Rex says, shuffling around in his bag for something. After several moments, he produces a flashlight, which appears surprisingly unharmed. “It’s a bit wet, but, well, it’s a salvaging lamp, so it’s kind of made for that. You’ll need to be able to see, after all.”

“Right.” He accepts the lamp. 

_Aren’t you forgetting something?_ echoes in his brain, a shock of an old memory. An old, old memory.

“Thanks,” he says. It’s strange, to be thinking of his former travelling companions now. He thought he’d stopped dwelling on the past—he had five hundred years to, after all, and got more than a bit tired of only having the short time he spent with Addam to think about. He shakes it off, ignores the weird looks from the others, and turns on his heels to leave.

As he fiddles with the lamp to turn it on, he swears he hears Tora say, “did big scary just thank Rex-Rex?”

He’s feeling charitable. He ignores him.

~

Nia stands waiting for Malos at the cave entrance. She supposes he had to talk to Rex and the others, first—Zenobia can be pretty stubborn too, when she wants to be, and Malos could easily have made the mistake of telling her they were going hunting. She hopes he deters her from trying to join if he did. She’s kind of got to have an important conversation here.

A light slices through the darkness, blinding her for a moment. She hisses as it gets closer, revealing Malos at its source. Funny, a dark Blade being the source of light. Come to think of it, it’s weird that the Dark Aegis is the one who’s trying to do all the good. Even if he’s definitely not nice about it.

In fact, Malos is… kind of an asshole. He’s sassy, and rude, and doesn’t take anyone’s shit for longer than a second. The fact that he’s trying to _save_ everyone seems a bit unbelievable, more so with every new interaction they have.

In contrast, Pyra was the epitome of kindness when Nia had been with Torna. Mythra, her “true” form, was ruthless, but she still carried this sense of caring about her. She’d said multiple times how their ultimate goal was to help the world, but now, Nia’s not quite sure what “help” meant for Mythra.

He grunts a greeting as he comes to a stop beside her. “The kid lent me his salvaging lamp so we can see a bit better.”

“I noticed,” she says, “you kind of blinded me with it, there.”

He nods, not offering any apology. To be frank, she’d be shocked if he did. 

“Anyways, let’s get going. I’m tired, ‘dlike to rest a bit sooner rather than later.” She starts walking, Dromarch on her heels like always. Good old Dromarch. No matter what crazy shit happens, at least he’s a constant in her life.

“Right.” They walk further into the titan, over a rock bridge, scanning for anything that might be safe to burn or safe to eat. They avoid the monsters and avoid straying too far, and soon, Nia’s focus drifts back to her real goal for this little expedition.

Nia glances to where the sky should be, where there’s only the inner hide of the Titan and an awful lot of empty space. “What Titan d’you think this we landed on, anyway?” she wonders aloud.

“It looks different, but… this looks like Uraya. Not many titans like this one, with everything on the inside.”

She glances at him out of the corner of her eye. He’s looking at the sky now, too. “You’ve been here before, then?”

He nods, just enough to notice. “I was awakened here.”

“Really?” She has to stop walking at that. “Wouldn’t have figured you for an Urayan.”

“Didn’t figure you for a Blade, either, but looks like we’ve both got some surprising facts about ourselves.”

Nia stumbles, any words dying in her throat, which suddenly feels notably dry. There’s a pause where no one says anything at all, and maybe it’s just Nia, but it’s pregnant with questions, fear—she has to break the silence, or she’ll never be able to breathe. “So you’ve figured it out, then.”

He nods in silence. She looks down at the ground, choosing not to meet his eyes. Not like it changes anything. He’s not even looking at her.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“What should I do about it?”

Dromarch presses into the side of her legs, a silent gesture of comfort. She crosses her arms across her chest, feeling incredibly small. “I-I don’t know. Usually people turn me in to whoever’s closest. Chase me down. Call me a cannibal.”

Malos seems almost confused by the idea. “You’re a flesh eater. I’ve never known a flesh eater who wanted to be, or liked the process. Think part of cannibalism is enjoying the eating humans part.”

His words are somehow more anxiety-inducing than comforting. “Yeah, but… I’m a freak of nature. An abomination.”

“Never met an actual abomination. People are assholes, but just because everyone’s saying it doesn’t make it right.” He shrugs and starts walking.

Nia tries to follow, but her legs refuse it. Sensing this, Dromarch lowers himself, and she climbs on his back. He trots to catch up with Malos, heavy paws hitting the ground with soft thuds.

“So then, you… never mind. Can you just, do me a favor, and not tell the others?” Her words falter as he gives her a _look_ , one that’s probably just his face, but reads ‘are you fucking serious right now’.

“I can’t do that. You really think you can just hide something like this from everyone?”

The ether in her veins feels like ice all of a sudden. Not that her blood wasn’t running cold before, but, well, you know. It’s worse now. “Malos, _please_.”

“I get that you’re self-conscious or whatever, but you need to tell them, or I will.” His voice is firm, like always, like he’s never going to budge on anything. The stubbornness irks Nia in a way she can’t put into words right now, and if she weren’t in a really bad situation, she’d probably act on her annoyance.

She doesn’t have a plan, and being rude to him right now to prove a point won’t do anything to help her, so she just keeps talking without really thinking about the exact words.

…which is probably why the next words to leave her mouth shock her. “I’ll tell Rex everything,” she says. “About how you take on his injuries. How you’re weaker than he thinks you are. Than _you_ think you are. I’ll tell the others, too.”

He has the gall to be taken aback for a moment, just a momentary touch of shock—a crack in the Aegis’s armor. Nia homes in and pounces on that crack.

“Look, we all have stuff we don’t want to talk about. You’re clearly trying to hide the fact that you have any flaws at all so no one worries about you, and I’m trying not to go back into hiding or even jail for the unforgiveable crime of existing.” She places a hand on his arm, gentle yet purposeful. “Maybe it wasn’t like this five hundred years ago, but now, people hate flesh eaters. They hate me. I can’t let the others find out, okay? So I’ll keep your secret, and you keep mine.”

Malos keeps silent. Architect, this guy is impossible to read. She keeps talking.

“Look, I’ll even sweeten the deal. When you or Rex get injured, I’ll heal you away from everyone so that you can hide it better and keep your little charade up. I know you want to seem like this impenetrable, infallible servant of the Architect or whatever, but you’re in a unique position. They don’t have to know.”

He glares. “I don’t like to keep secrets.”

“But they think you’re strong, right? And not that you’re not strong now, but you want to keep it the way it is now, or else you’d have already told Rex. You definitely wouldn’t be trying to hide it now. They don’t have to have any idea. You’ll be perfect, and I’ll be normal.”

There’s a moment of silence where he seems to be considering the proposal. “I’ll think about it.”

She takes a deep breath. That’s not a ‘no’. “Take your time. I can wait.” That’s a lie—the prospect of spending time around their group knowing it could crumble at any moment is devastating to her—but he doesn’t need to know that. Plans for her escape when he decides to give away her secret anyways already rush through her head.

“If I may interrupt, My Lady, perhaps the two of you should get around to your reason for being out here, lest our travelling companions raise suspicions,” Dromarch suggests.

“Right. Malos, can you handle hunting by yourself? I can fight fine, but my thing’s more in the wood collecting part of things.”

“You’ll need the light to see, though. We should stick together.”

She tries to hide how much that idea makes her feel sick with anxiety right now. “I guess you’re right.” She climbs off Dromarch’s back, feeling the strength in her legs return, and the two follow Malos as he lights the way further into Uraya. 

They finish their work in silence and return to where Tora, Rex, and the others have set up camp, complete with some boards and the like for seating. Nia hopes that was all Zenobia’s doing, or she’ll be giving certain patients a few more injuries to work around. That’s a promise.

Malos focuses on the fire while she cleans the meat they’ve brought back. She doesn’t feel like talking, and luckily, it seems that no one is going to force her. Dromarch checks in on the others’ states before returning to Nia’s side, resting dutifully there.

She finishes preparing the meat just in time as Malos steps back from the sizable fire he’s set up. She impales some meat on a stick she’d whittled at anxiously during their search for firewood and begins roasting some meat for the others.

“Nia, got any of those oranges left from yesterday?” Malos asks.

She shakes her head. “Any that were left after everyone ate were pretty much bruised to death during the crash. You wouldn’t want to eat them, and besides, they’re all floating in the water now.”

“Shame. Would’ve gone well with all this meat.” As he speaks, he spears a chunk of meat of his own to cook.

Zenobia takes the cue to join in on their kebab session. “If you don’t want it, Malos, I’ll take it.”

“No, that’s fine.”

Soon, everyone’s sat around the fire, making food for themselves, save for Poppi, who’s still undergoing maintenance, and Gramps, whose arms are a bit too short and too small for the task. Rex passes him several morsels as the night passes. 

Gramps thanks him quietly, and everyone falls into a silent rhythm before Zenobia decides to break it.

“So, Malos. You said you were gonna tell us about the whole artifice deal once we got everyone together.”

“I did, didn’t I?” He bites into a chunk of meat, chewing impossibly slowly. When he finally swallows, he lets out a heavy sigh. “Fine. An artifice is a type of servant to the Aegis. I have one, Gargoyle—there were more, before the Aegis war destroyed most of them. Mythra had some, too—Sirens, she called them. I saw to it that every single one she called forth was destroyed. They’re strong, stronger than any one person could hope to handle alone. Me, I can just use my power to destroy them.”

He pauses, a non-present look in his eyes as he stares into the fire. “That creature that attacked us at the World Tree... it’s not my artifice, and to my knowledge, it’s not Mythra’s, either.”

“Whose is it, then?” Nia asks.

“Beats me. Maybe Mythra got a new artifice, somehow. Maybe the Architect sees that Pyra woman as separate from Mythra, though they seem to occupy the same core.” Malos shrugs. “I don’t have any data or memories of it anywhere. Whoever it belongs to, they don’t like us, or they don’t want anyone coming close to the World Tree. If we wanted to take it down, we’d need more skill, coordination, and manpower than we’re going to have for a while, or I’m going to need the ability to destroy it using my own powers.”

“Are they alive?” Rex asks. He’s got a bit of a grimace on his face.

Malos shakes his head. “Not to my knowledge. They’re kind of like Poppi, but they never speak, or do anything more lifelike—empty shells, who only exist to follow the orders their master gives them. There’s a way to control them, though, if you’re not its master, but hell if I know where the key to that is.”

“What key does friend need?” Tora asks.

“It’s hazy, but I don’t remember seeing any sort of control core on it when it attacked us. It might be separate from its body, which means we could find it and take control without it nearly killing us in the process.”

“I’ve been travelling around the Cloud Sea for some time while you were sleeping, Malos,” Gramps speaks up, “and I’m quite certain that the chasm that artifice came from has been there longer than Mythra and her friends have been acting. Is it possible for someone other than an Aegis to use a control core?”

Malos glances at him, then back to the fire. His eyes seem to be flicking back and forth, like he’s reading words Nia and the others can’t see, before he comes up with an answer. “It’s possible any Blade could control it. I don’t know about humans, though. But if someone else has the core, that poses a bigger problem, because we have no way of finding out where that is.”

“Well,” Rex says, stretching his arms out in front of him. “Maybe we can find someone who knows something about that chasm and the artifice who might be able to give us an idea. If this ‘control core’ is being used to keep people from reachin’ the World Tree, it’s probably in the hands of some politician, right?”

Zenobia lets out a groan. “This sounds like _way_ too much work. Why don’t we just get some more people helping us, maybe procure a nice warship, and kill the thing?”

“Like I said, it’s not exactly easy to kill one of these. It’d be easy to destroy with my power, but you saw it. It can fly, and that’s something I can’t do anymore.”

“‘Anymore’?” Zenobia presses, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face. “What, don’t tell me one of your artifices used to be, like, some kind of flying machine or something.”

“He did use something like that, during the last battle of the Aegis war,” Gramps mentions. “If I recall correctly, however, it suffered a great deal of damage when he and Mythra went head-to-head.”

“The point is, I don’t have that anymore.” Malos sets the stick he’d been cooking meat with on the ground. “Besides, it’s too destructive. I could kill an artifice with it, and completely destroy the World Tree behind it.”

“…So then we fight it normally,” Zenobia says. She’s got the look on her face that she had when she’d rescued Nia and Malos from the monster back in Gormott—a dangerous excitement in her eyes, determination written in the furrowing of her brows. “It’ll be a real challenge! It seems like fun!”

“Like I said earlier, you’re free to try it if you’ve got a death wish.”

“Well, regardless, we’ll have to get some more information about the artifice once we find a town. We still need to figure out where to go from here, after all, once we figure out where ‘here’ is.” 

“We’re in Uraya,” Malos answers automatically. “At least, I’m pretty sure. Got the same kind of environment, and I don’t know many titans whose inhabitants are all on the inside instead of on their backs.”

“Right. Never been to Uraya. Not much of a salvaging scene.” Rex shrugs. “Probably because it’s a bit hard to salvage from the inside of a titan.”

Does he _ever_ think about anything other than salvaging?

“By the way, Rex, how are you feeling?” Nia asks, not wanting to get into the salvaging conversation again. “I was thinking you’d be able to move around properly by tomorrow, but I’m not keen on letting you fight in your current state.”

“Why not?” Rex asks.

She rolls her eyes. “How’s your head feeling? Have you even tried to do anything harder than cooking meat over the fire?”

“Point taken.”

“To be honest, I don’t think it can be avoided unless we stay in one place, and even with my healing, I’d still recommend resting for at least a day before getting back into the action. Arts can only do so much for you.”

“I can cover him!” Zenobia offers. “The more fighting I get to do, the better, anyways!”

“As long as it’s a monster, and not a Driver, who attacks us,” Malos adds. “You can’t just kill people.”

She lets out a bark of laughter. “I can handle people too, you know! You saw me when we were rescuing Nia, I can knock people out perfectly fine!”

“You are so confident in yourself, it’s annoying.”

“And you’re really rude!”

“In any case,” Rex says, “I think I’ll be fine tomorrow, Nia. I’ll take it easy, and then we’ll take a proper rest the next town we get to. Get some nice rooms at the inn, and all that.”

“I guess it’ll have to do. Tora, how are you and Poppi?”

“Tora have a few more checks to do on Poppi! Most of maintenance at this point just buffing out scratches and checking functions, though. Tora not too hurt from crash, either.”

Nia sighs. “Alright, fine, I’ll clear both of you to travel again tomorrow. But Rex, you need to be careful about your concussion. Malos, you need to be careful for him.”

“Why not Zenobia? She’s more into this fighting thing than I am.”

“You know why,” she fires back. Confused eyes land on her. They seem to ask what she knows that they don’t—wary, Nia elaborates with a lie. “Zenobia’s faster. More suited to an advance guard. Besides, do you really think she’d settle for being the guard?”

Malos accepts the answer, and so do the others, and Nia relaxes. If she can just keep all this up, maybe everything will turn out all right. Yet, the knowledge that Malos knows about her gnaws at her brain, and the smiles she gives with her sass are pulled back before they can properly reach her eyes.

She hates to admit it, but she really might have to run after all.

~

As the fire dies down, Tora returns to working on Poppi, and the others begin to settle down. Zenobia takes watch for the night, and Nia curls up next to Dromarch. Malos finds the least objectional place to sleep, Rex curls up on the ground, and Azurda rests on top of him. No one’s really comfortable, but they all eventually find it within themselves to sleep, leaving Zenobia on her own and bored out of her mind.

She was specifically instructed not to go off hunting or anything, so she doesn’t. She sits. And she waits. And she keeps her time until eventually it’s just short of time to wake up Tora and put him on watch, and her mind feels numb. All she can do is decompress and try to figure out some way to get Malos to fight her.

It's not fair that he completely refuses to acknowledge her. She’s plenty strong, plenty skilled. She just wants a challenge for once. Is that too much to ask?

Zenobia’s pulled from her thoughts when Nia stirs awake of her own accord. At first, Zenobia thinks she’s just going for a short walk nearby to clear her head, but then she shakes Dromarch awake and grabs her share of food and weapons before trying to sneak away.

“What are you doing?” Zenobia asks, her voice loud enough to be heard, but hardly loud enough to be considered more than a hushed whisper. Best not to wake the others yet.

Nia, cat that she is, freezes, her ears sticking straight up in alarm. “Don’t… don’t worry about it. Just going for a walk.”

“With your only Blade? And all your weapons?”

Nia is so suspicious, it’s painful. “I just… need to clear my head. It’s not safe to walk around alone at night, after all, and cats are a bit nocturnal, so…”

“Unless I’m mistaken, being Gormotti doesn’t mean you just act like a cat. It’s just the ears and some better vision, right?”

“Well, I can’t fault you for knowing a thing or two.” Nia shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m just going for a walk.”

Zenobia sighs. It’s pretty clear what’s going on, given Nia’s past actions. The only question now is why she’s doing this. “If you’re leaving again, you should talk to the others first. I can’t be expected to be the one to break the news.”

“I’m not… it’s just…” Nia’s completely at a loss now, judging by her flattened ears and borderline miserable expression. “I can’t… explain to any of you why I’m leaving. It’s not that I don’t have a reason, I have a good one, but I just can’t...”

“That sounds like the type of excuse given by someone who doesn’t actually have a good reason. I can’t really stop you without fighting you, and while I’d love a good sparring session, I think you’d rather avoid it. But, wouldn’t you prefer to think this through a little more? There’s a reason you decided to come with us, isn’t there?”

Nia avoids her eyes, pulling her hood up. “There is, but if you knew my reason, you’d understand.”

“Then tell me. You don’t even have to tell the others.”

“Zenobia, I… _really_ can’t do that.”

Zenobia rocks on her feet for a moment, before subtly controlling the wind so she can float. She crosses her legs. “Does it have anything to do with you and Malos?”

“Huh?” The ears flick up again, shuffling her hood. 

Zenobia grins. “I knew there was something between you two. Early morning walks around the Gormotti plains, going off to gather lumber and hunt for food together…”

“It’s not like that!” Nia says, perhaps a bit too loud. She knows it, too, glancing at the sleeping forms of the others. No one shifts or moves any more than they normally do in their sleep, so she turns back to Zenobia. “Look, it does have to do with Malos, but it’s _nothing_ like that.”

“I don’t know,” Zenobia muses, “I can see it. A big, strong, Aegis, with chiseled features and all those muscles…” This is _too_ fun, even if Nia looks ready to stab her right now.

“Zenobia, for the love of the Architect, _stop_. He just… figured something out, ‘sall. I’d rather it be kept secret, really rather he not tell anyone, and he’s not too keen on that idea. If I leave now, I can get a head start on dealing with the consequences.”

Okay, maybe it’s best to lay off right now. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. But, what could he possibly have figured out that you have to leave?”

“Don’t worry about it, okay? It’s bad enough that Malos knows. I’ve got a lot of secrets, some of them less acceptable than others, and it’s in everyone’s best interest that they stay that way.”

“I get it. Do you really think he’ll tell us, though?”

Nia frowns, turning away. “That’s what we talked about when getting everything earlier. He doesn’t seem keen on the idea of _not_ telling everyone. Trust and all that. Don’t think he realizes you can trust people without telling them your worst secrets.”

“You don’t think you’re being cowardly?” Maybe it’s a rude question, but she genuinely wants to know.

Nia shrugs. “I’ve ran away most of my life. Doesn’t make sense to stop now.”

“My lady…” Dromarch has the saddest expression an actual cat can muster, but says no more. It seems to be all he needs to say, given the way Nia smiles down at him, however broken, and pats his head.

“You know, Nia,” Zenobia says, floating closer to her. “You’re a good kid. I wish you’d stay with us. Maybe we could help you, teach you how to get through life without running.”

“I’d like that,” she says, and the sentence hangs. There’s a ‘but’ there, but Nia doesn’t continue, prompting Zenobia to ask for it.

Zenobia leans forward. “But…?”

“I wouldn’t know how to stop running if I tried.”

“You stopped for a day or two, didn’t you?”

Nia sighs. “No, not really. I was just running from different people, then.”

“So run with us,” Zenobia says simply. “We don’t have to be more people you run away from.”

There’s pain and something sad in Nia’s eyes, and Zenobia feels suddenly curious as to what the hell kind of life she’s led until now. 

“My lady,” Dromarch begins, “perhaps it would do you some good to stay. Just for another few days. The Urayan wilderness is not too friendly to strangers traveling alone.”

Nia’s shoulders drop, and she nods slowly, perhaps feeling a bit defeated. “…fine. I can stay for a bit longer.” She places down her weapons and returns the food, walking over to the spot she’d been sleeping in. “I hope we don’t turn out to regret this.”

Zenobia watches her for a moment, a frown etched on her face. She’d like to find a way to get Nia to join them permanently, but…

For now, she wakes Tora for his shift, and sleeps on it. Maybe they can talk more about it tomorrow.

~

Rex wakes up to soreness throughout his body. Apparently Nia’s healing arts don’t do much of anything when you’re stuck sleeping on the ground afterwards. His head feels remarkably better, though, so at the very least he can say he’s not in the worst state he could be in. 

Tora was supposed to be on watch this morning, but he’s asleep next to Poppi, who appears to be back to functioning—she smiles at Rex and waves in the most Poppi-like way she can without disturbing her masterpon.

“Masterpon fixed Poppi and was very tired after, put Poppi on watch to get more sleepy-sleepy. Good morning, Rex-rex.”

“Yeah,” he says, rubbing sleep from his eyes, “good morning.” He looks around the camp—the fire, now only a few smoldering embers, must have died down during the night. The others are handling cleanup and apparently scavenging the titan ship wreckage.

Looks like he was the last one to wake, then, aside from Tora. “Poppi, could you wake Tora up for us? We’re going to get going soon.”

“Understood, Rex-rex. Initiating special ‘Wake Up, Masterpon!’ protocol.”

In the moment Rex glances away to pick up his helmet, he hears an unmistakable _slap!_ , followed by Tora’s disgruntled cry.

“Meh-meh-meh! Poppi! What wake Masterpon for?”

“Rex-rex requested that Masterpon wake up so friends can leave soon.”

Tora’s none too happy, but he gets up, leaving Rex to figure out where to go from here. “Thanks, Poppi. Make sure he stays awake, would you?”

He approaches Nia and Dromarch, who are wading through water at the titan’s mouth and looking through the debris. “G’morning, you two.” He barely waits for them to nod in acknowledgement of his greeting. “Don’t suppose you happened to see a town or anything when you were out scavenging with Malos last night?”

“Cutting right to the chase this morning, I see,” Nia responds, yawning. “But no, if there’s a town nearby, we didn’t see it. Visibility was pretty low when we were out there, anyway, and we didn’t go too far.”

“Got it. Figured I’d ask before we set out for the day.”

“We’re heading out soon, then?”

Rex nods. “Think so, yeah. Get moving early, maybe we can find a town by nightfall and not have to sleep outside tonight.”

“It’d be nice to sleep in a bed for a change, yeah. Dromarch’s got fur, but there’s only so much fur can do for comfort.” Nia stretches her arms slowly, letting out another yawn. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I hadn’t slept at all, honestly. I’m about done looking through the debris here, so I’m ready to leave when everyone else is.”

Everyone else is ready about as quickly—they meet up with little to show for their scavenging, and Zenobia and Nia lead the charge on their way further into Uraya, hopefully to a village or town with a respectable inn.

At this point, though, Rex would take an unrespectable inn, so long as everyone had beds to sleep in tonight. The gentle caress of something soft to hold his body, maybe even a blanket, no one having to stay up to keep watch… No waking up to rocks poking his back…

It’s the closest to Elysium he can get right now.

Gramps nestles into his helmet as they trek through the Urayan wilderness, and maybe it’s because no one slept well, but no one seems willing to make conversation. The walk is quiet and uneventful, with only a few attempts from monsters to try and take them down. With Zenobia leading the way, though, it’s hardly an event.

It’s not until they enter a large cavern that they see anyone outside their group. A hulking man with tanned, scarred skin suddenly drops in front of their group from the land bridge above, and moments later, a large human-like, bird-like Blade covered in orange feathers lands just behind him. 

There’s four other figures on the land bridge, and they follow the first man’s movements—two more Drivers, and two more Blades. They flank the first man with grins on their faces, and there’s something menacing about them.

“Well, what have we here?” the center man asks, looking over their group with a raised eyebrow. His eyes linger in the space above Rex—it takes Rex a moment to realize he’s looking directly at Malos.

Rex nearly shudders, reaching for Malos’s— _his_ —sword on instinct. There’s a certain greed on this man’s face, the kind of greed Rex saw on the face of the consul. It’s different, but when the stranger draws his weapons, the intention is clear.

“This won’t be very fun for you, kid,” the man says. “It’s probably for the best that you hand over the Aegis now.”

Rex draws the sword, assuming a battle stance. “Like I’d let you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
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	7. A Friendly(?) Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the best way to get to know each other is a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has technically been ready to post since the day after the last chapter, but I couldn't make myself like certain parts or find a good title, lmao. A bit shorter this time, but next chapter will make up for it! Thanks for reading, as always! More to come soon <3 Expect more frequent updates in general. I've decided that my ultimate goal for 2019 is to finish writing this fic! It may not all be published by the end of 2019, but if all goes as planned, the final chapters will be in the editing stages by the end of next December. Look forward to it!

“Come on, small fry, leave someone like the Aegis to a guy who can actually handle it.”

“You’re weak. Your constitution, the way you carry yourself, your confidence… I only need to look at you to tell you’re not fit to be the Aegis’s Driver.”

Malos kind of agrees with the men that have appeared before him and his motley crew of misfit Drivers and almost-Drivers. Rex is pretty scrawny, it’s true, and he could definitely be a bit less… fifteen. Granted, it’s true that most, maybe all of his current shortcomings are because he’s a new Driver given more responsibility than he probably thought he’d ever have, but he’s still weak.

They’ll have to work on that later.

“You realize that I choose who my Driver is?” Malos asks, giving the central man a once-over. He’s been in his share of fights, with just as many scars as he has muscles, and he carries an interesting weapon, no doubt provided by the Blade that flaps its wings behind him. The balance of the ether is all thrown off, but it’s not that hard to tell that it’s a wind-type Blade before him.

The first man is flanked by two more, some cronies who very visibly have less experience and skill. What they appear to lack there, must be made up for in loyalty—they stand proudly, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Both have their own Blades, as well.

“And why wouldn’t you choose to go with the boss?” the right hand man asks. “He’s got more than what you need in a Driver.”

“That’s my decision,” Malos says, irritation climbing slowly. He mutters something under his breath to the kid—“Zenobia won’t be a great match against the guy in the center. Wind versus wind. The other two Blades…” 

He looks them over. The first is a dark-skinned woman with a long ponytail and a frosty glare. She’s also got some spikes of ice around her feet—bingo. “You can take the risk with the one in blue. She’s ice element. You can try to take out the Drivers one by one, or we can split the workload with Nia and Tora. Zenobia’s pretty keen to fight on her own, though.”

“Got it. What about that third Blade?”

He barely has to look at her to figure out her element. “Ether cannon user, definitely dark element. She’ll be a bit better at taking my attacks. I’d put Tora up to it if we’re splitting the workload.”

Rex opens his mouth to say something, but the words don’t quite make it out of his mouth—a blast of wind brushes past him, knocking him off balance. Malos steadies him, shooting a glare at the source. The central man has one arm raised to the sky, holding a feathered scythe in each hand.

“Did you really think we’d let you strategize?” he says. “No, kid, you don’t get that time. Play nice, and hand over the Aegis, or we fight. What’ll it be?”

Rex nods in determination, steadying his grip on the sword in his hands. Zenobia instantly takes that as her cue to draw her axe. The others follow suit, and Rex grits his teeth. “I made a promise to Malos, and I’m not really planning on breaking it anytime soon.”

The man smiles and laughs heartily. “I like the sound of that. Yew, Zuo, you know the drill! And leave the scrappy little Aegis’s Driver to me!”

For the man’s massive size, he moves rather fast. The affinity link between Malos and Rex barely has time to flicker into existence before it’s drowned out. The golden link between the attacker and his Blade is fast and bright, and it’s followed instantly 

Rex blocks it with Malos’s sword—Malos recalls it had a name once, one that never mattered much when in his and Addam’s hands. He stays vigilant, funneling ether through the link as best as he can. It’s been getting easier to maintain the link between him and Rex, less like forcing a waterfall through a straw. Less like overwhelming the link with more ether than it’ll ever be able to take.

Rex is pretty occupied, so Malos turns to bark orders. “Zenobia! How do you feel about a little one-on-one?”

She turns with a gleeful look on her face. “Right now? Sure!”

“Not me, idiot. Go after the ice Blade. You can take Driver and Blade out according to Rex’s preferences, right?”

She has the audacity to look disappointed. “Well, yeah…”

He gets it, but still, best to act how Rex prefers it. “Father, just deal with it. Nia, Tora, that leaves you on the other!”

Nia, who’s locked in a power struggle with the ice Driver and his Blade’s lance, the crossing of Dromarch’s rings being the only thing protecting her, nods. “Right, let me just stop being attacked long enough to switch targets—" 

Zenobia’s winds rush past her, followed by Zenobia herself, bringing her axe down on the lance. Nia takes the chance to roll out of the way, spotting the dark Driver and making a beeline towards him.

“Hey, buddy! I’m your new sparring partner!” Zenobia cheers as she takes Nia’s place in combat. “Don’t hold back, all right?”

Malos turns back to Rex and the wind user, just in time to step in and shield a particularly hefty blow from reaching Rex. He’s moving more slowly today—aftereffects of the concussion, most likely. Honestly, Malos is still recovering, too, so he can’t fault the kid this time. (Just this time.)

Malos can’t place it quite yet, but something feels different about this man’s attacks. It’s almost like he’s just sparring…

“Kid, I’m ready!” Malos barks. “Let me know when!”

Rex nods. “Now’s fine!” he calls, tossing the sword in the air moments after landing a blow. Malos catches it effortlessly, putting himself into the thick of combat. His sword locks with the scythe for a moment, just long enough for Malos to be convinced. He grins, and lets out a burst of ether with the swing of his blade.

 _I’ll let the kid use this as a learning experience._ He turns back over his shoulder and offers no explanation, only a nod. “I’m with you.”

Rex smiles and nods back, and moves to grab the sword’s handle. Malos prepares the attack, allowing ether to channel into the weapon freely. When Rex grabs on, they bring the sword down together, sending a line of dark ether straight at the man.

In an instant, though, the stranger’s Blade is between them, blocking the blow with an ether shield which shatters on impact with their attack.

“Damn,” Rex says, and Malos backs off to his usual position in battle, keeping a wary eye out for Rex and funneling ether to him. The more he does, the easier it feels, and for just a moment, the link looks tinted with gold.

Rex keeps his focus on the battle at hand, dodging at many attacks as he gives. He uses one of his own arts, one he said Azurda taught him—fires his grappling hook right past the man’s face, hoping to catch him off guard, and immediately swings. (He realizes he maybe hasn’t been working with his Driver on actually _using_ his weapon.)

The man doesn’t bat an eyelid, letting loose an art of his own, surrounding Rex in a torrent of wind. “You’re too slow, kid,” the man says, voice gravelly and haughty. “How about you actually try hitting me, instead of relying on some fancy tricks?”

Rex lets out a growl, which might be intimidating if he weren’t so scrawny-looking. “What d’you know?”

“More than you could hope to, kid. You haven’t put a scratch on me yet!” His next move is too tricky for Rex to block and too fast for him to dodge. The scythe digs into Rex’s shoulder, leaving a medium-depth cut that has Rex crying out. Malos can’t help but grit his teeth as the pain blooms in his own shoulder.

“Nia, your job!” Malos barks. He’s certain to keep his face straight, his condition hidden, as he glances over at her.

Nia nods and continues the attack she’s in the middle of administering. “Tora, Dromarch, cover me!”

In the meantime, while Nia prepares her healing art, Malos grabs the sword and steps in, going blade-to-blade with the man to protect Rex. A blue light washes over him and Rex both not long after, and the pain in his shoulder ebbs under its pressure.

“Let me know when you’re good to go, Rex,” Malos says, and Rex pulls his gloved hand away from the wound. It’s closed—not perfectly healed, not completely, but not bleeding or angrily protesting his movements—so he gives Malos the go ahead.

Malos returns the sword to him with one efficient movement, and Rex assumes a battle stance once again. “Thanks, Nia,” Rex calls over his shoulder.

“Thank me when we’re done with this, yeah?”

Rex’s new approach seems to be a flurry of ether-heavy attacks—bolt after bolt of darkness sent roaring towards his adversary. He’s going so fast, even Malos is struggling to keep up. “How’s this for too slow?” Rex taunts. Malos’s breath quickens—it’s becoming more and more difficult to breathe and to pull the ether. He has to stop it.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Malos says, abruptly cutting the affinity link. His breath is shortened, his body exhausted—kid sure knows how to overload a Blade. 

Rex, however, doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening, swinging the sword still. The man blocks it effortlessly. “Malos? What’re you doing?”

“Don’t you get it, kid?” the stranger asks, holding both weapons up in the air. “Yew, Zuo, that’s enough.” 

Like they were stopped by some divine force, the other two men instantly relent on their attacks, and in their confusion, Zenobia, Nia, and Tora stop their own attacks. “What’s going on?” Zenobia asks, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Thanks for letting me take a whack at the Aegis there!” the man says. He hooks his scythes on his belt with a grin.

Malos nods. “Kid needed the experience. Speaking of,” he turns to Rex, “you’re gonna have to start paying attention to your Blades’ limits. If I hadn’t cut the link there, you would have exhausted the ether I could get to you. Even I’d have trouble standing after the amount you were using.”

“Exhausted?” Rex echoes, lowering the sword.

The man takes this as his opportunity. “You’re so green, it hurts. Blades can only do so much at once. If you use your Blade like that, you’ll even reach the Aegis’s limits after long enough.”

“I… have no idea what’s going on,” Nia says.

“This was never a fight to take the Aegis,” Malos explains. “There’s a lot you can hear at the crossing of blades, if you know how to listen. From the beginning, he didn’t have the killing intent, or the malice, necessary to be willing to kill a boy for a Blade, and his attacks were more like sparring than a fight to the death.”

The man laughs heartily. “Exactly what I’d expect from the Aegis. Name’s Vandham. This is Yew—” he nods to the man with the ice Blade— “—and Zuo.” He nods to the other with an equal amount of respect. “Blades are Roc, Perun, and Azami. You lot can introduce yourselves on the way to town, if you’re going our way.”

Rex slumps a bit now that he’s no longer locked in combat. “S-sure, we’re heading your way, if ‘your way’ is the nearest village.”

“Right then. We’ll take you to Garfont, show you around, the works,” Yew says.

The group converges, and Vandham and his Blade begin leading the walk to this ‘Garfont’. On the way, their group introduces themselves, and Vandham imparts a decent amount of the Driver basics to Rex. Thank Father, too, because Malos was _not_ wanting to put up with teaching the kid.

~

Turns out they weren’t too far from Garfont Village. Rex walks next to Vandham, even as Nia casts maybe too many healing Arts on the way over everyone involved. Rex is thankful for it—her arts soothe the ache in his shoulder, and what little aftereffects there were from his concussion fade even more each time. 

Garfont is a cozy little village in what Vandham and his friends have confirmed to be Uraya. The houses here are strange, like tents, but more… solid. Kids of every race chase each other around the center of the village, and there’s an awful lot of Drivers hanging around. Every time he turns his head, he sees another Blade accompanying someone.

“Is this a merc village?” Nia asks. She seems to have picked up on the same thing.

“Just about. The village sprouted up around our little group here. Garfont village, named for the Garfont mercenaries.” Yew—Rex thinks his name was Yew—has a prideful smile as he talks about it.

“Boss here leads the group,” Zuo adds.

“We take in children displaced or orphaned by war and tragedy,” a Blade, Perun, says. “For all the reputation mercenaries have, Garfont is one of those that works against that reputation.”

“These kids are all war orphans and refugees?” Rex asks, looking over them again. Now that he’s heard it, he does see the signs of it—the way the kids carry themselves, the way he used to, back when everything was new and scary and his parents were gone. He’d found a new home quickly, in fact, instantly, never even had time to grieve—these kids, though, they’ve had their share of grief.

He smiles warmly. He’s never been a fan of war, a bit less of mercenaries, but at least these guys seem to be making the best out of their situation.

“Do the kids join your group when they grow up?” he asks.

“Some do, yeah,” Vandham answers. “Just as many grow up to be tailors, or bakers, or merchants. Even some salvagers in the lot. We’re taking them in to help them, not to raise proper mercenaries.”

“Good,” Rex says, “good.”

“Got a bunch of good eggs, here,” Nia comments. She sounds about as warm as Rex feels at the thought of all this.

Yew snickers. “If you want good eggs, we’ll have to take you to Vargel Tavern.”

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Malos says. “Been a while since any of these kids ate anything proper.”

Zenobia shrugs. “I don’t know, dinner last night was pretty good.”

“That’s because you’re a meathead.” Malos doesn’t even try to hide his amusement.

“Okay, that’s it, I’m going to fight you for that comment alone. This isn’t even about fun anymore.” Zenobia readies her axe. “Come on, Malos, let’s do this.”

“Pass,” Malos says, striding past her without a second glance.

Rex can’t help but smile. “Glad to see you two are getting along.”

Zenobia whorls around to face him, glare on her face. “We’re not! He’s being mean!”

“That’s just what Malos is like, though,” Rex says. “Best not to take it personal.”

“He’s right, you know,” Nia adds, a wry grin on her face. “Now come on, we got to talking about food. Vandham, could you tell us how to get to the tavern?”

He laughs at the group’s antics before responding. “You lot are a riot. Come on, I’ll treat all of you for a good battle fought.”

Vandham takes them to Vargel Tavern, an outdoor place with a bar and some tables set out under a roof with no walls around, and true to his word, he buys food and drink for everyone present from their group, complete with a beer for himself. Tora, Poppi, Dromarch, and Zenobia sit at one table, while Vandham, Rex, Malos, Nia, and Gramps sit at the other.

“So, what’s the Aegis and his Driver doin’ out here in Uraya? Travelling Alrest now that you’ve got firepower by your side?” Vandham asks after taking a long swig of the mug of beer before him.

Rex shifts in his seat. “We were headed to the World Tree. Malos and I both have our reasons for going to Elysium, you see, and Malos says it’s up there, at the top of the Tree…”

“Wait, let me guess,” Vandham says, “that thing what made the Great Void didn’t like you gettin’ so close, did he?”

“How’d you guess?” Malos asks, his tone dry. He drinks from his own mug of beer, and eats a plate of something leafy. Whatever it is, it’s made of ingredients native to Uraya—stupid, of course it is—and completely foreign to Rex, save for what looks like sumpkin sprinkled in.

Vandham laughs. “No one seems to know where that thing came from, but it’s been there a good while. Attacks any ships that try to get close to the world tree, and if you believe old legends, ate the Cloud Sea itself to make that big chasm at its base.”

“Has it always been there?” Nia asks.

“Far as I can remember, yeah. Anyone who tries to climb the World Tree ends up dead or drowned. You’re lucky everyone survived it.”

“Think we only survived because a certain titan happened to eat us when we went to escape. That thing wasn’t around when I was last awake. At least, not active.” Malos leans on the table with both elbows.

“What makes you say that?” Rex tilts his head, furrowing his brows as he looks at Malos.

The Aegis takes a bite of his… salad… before answering. “That void in the Cloud Sea wasn’t there when I was with Addam, and like I told all of you, that thing’s an artifice. If it were Mythra’s, she’d have used it during the Aegis war. If she knew about it, she would have done everything in her power to get her hands on it. But that artifice was never mentioned by anyone on Alrest before I woke up again now, and if Mythra used it at all, she was pretty set on keeping it out of my knowledge.”

“If it’s not Mythra’s and it’s not yours, whose do you think it is?”

“My guess is it has something to do with that Pyra form Mythra’s moving around in. I can’t say anything for certain, but if this ‘Pyra’ really is a different person from Mythra, then maybe she counts as a third Aegis.”

“From what I’ve seen of the both of ‘em,” Nia says, “Pyra’s not just a different look for Mythra. Their personalities are completely different. The only thing they’ve got in common is that broken core crystal and their goal. Memories too, probably.”

Rex nods. “When I met Pyra, she was warm, gentle. But she had this… ice in her. It wasn’t obvious at first, but when she tested me, I could feel something off about her. I didn’t think anything of it, figured it was just sheer power. But when I fought against Mythra… their eyes were different. Mythra’s were nothing but cold, pure, hatred.”

Malos scoffs. “It’s just a mask, kid. Don’t let her fool you.”

“I’m serious!” He leans forward, hands on the table. “They’re not even close to acting like the same person. I really do think they’re different from each other.”

“In any case,” Nia says, clearing her throat, “unless we can figure out how to deal with that artifice, we can’t climb the World Tree. Is that right?”

“Right,” Malos says. “If we can kill it, that’s one thing, but it’d be stupid to try. Even if I can destroy whatever I touch, that thing can fly. I’d have to be able to get to it to kill it, and unless I’ve forgotten something, I _can’t_ fly. We’ll have to find some other way to deal with it.”

“Someone’s climbed the World Tree before,” Vandham says. “Ages ago. Got a buddy, Cole, in the capitol. He’s real old. Probably old enough to know the guy who climbed it.”

 _Perfect! Someone who might know how to get around the artifice!_ “Could you tell us where to find him?”

“I’ll do you one better. I’ll introduce you. Got some business in Fonsa Myma anyways.”

“Really? You’d do that?”

Vandham nods. “It’ll be good to catch up with the old coot. Besides, kid, someone’s gotta teach you how to be a proper Driver. I’ll give you some more tips along the way.”

“Might be nice,” Rex says, explicitly not taking offense to the idea that he needs to be taught. He went into this whole ‘Aegis Driver’ thing knowing nothing, after all.

“I can teach the rest of you, too. Give you a few lessons in working together as a team of Drivers, being more effective in battle. You’ve got some communication skills, yeah, but you’re not working together at all.” He pauses, takes another long drink, before he continues speaking. 

“Gonna be honest with ya, Rex, you’ve got a real special Blade here. Every Driver worth his salt knows about the Aegis, and once they figure out you have him, they’ll start coming for you more aggressively. You’ll need to be able to rely on your friends here to help you, and pick friends that you can trust goin’ forward.”

“You’re not the first person who’s attacked us to get to Malos,” Nia says. “Couple of people back in Gormott went after him, for sure.”

“A lot’ll probably be driven away because he looks strong, and more because they’ve heard his reputation. But just as many will come after you for that reason alone. If you three Drivers can’t fight effectively together, and they can’t rely on their Blades, it won’t be long before someone comes for you that you won’t be able to defeat.” 

The words sober Rex and everyone else at the table. Rex, however, is determined to remain optimistic. “I know Malos can handle anyone that comes for us.”

“He shouldn’t have to handle all of it,” Vandham says. The statement is simple, but it provides a valid point. “You want to get to Elysium, but relying on your Blades and depending on them are completely different. A Blade is only as good as the Driver it’s bonded to. You’re gonna have to put in some effort, kid.”

“He’s right, you know,” Gramps adds. “The Driver is just as important as the Blade.”

“So then I’ll get stronger. Learn how to be a proper Driver, and then be one.”

“That’s not enough, kid,” Malos says. “Hate to say it, but you can’t just be a ‘proper’ Driver. You’ll have to become an amazing one.”

“What?”

Vandham sets down his now empty mug. “What Malos means is that you’re up against more than the average Driver. You need to be able to be better than the average Driver, or someone might actually kill you.”

“Alright, so teach me then,” Rex says. “I’ll be the best Driver Alrest has ever seen, but I can’t do it alone, so…”

Vandham smiles. “That’s more like it! Come on, I wanna see what you can do in battle. The rest of you come, too.” He turns to face the other table. “Come on, all of you.”

“But-but Tora not done eating tasty sausage yet!”

Poppi gives an exasperated look. “Masterpon, that fourth plate of tasty sausage. Maybe best that you stop now.”

Zenobia grabs Tora by the scruff of his neck as she stands and picks him up. “Come on now, Tora. We’ve got other things to do than eat and talk.”

“Meh-meh! Put Tora down!”

Tora eventually gives up and goes along with it, and their little group follows Vandham out to Garfont’s gate. To everyone’s confusion, they’re joined by Perun.

“Wasn’t Perun Yew’s Blade?” Nia asks.

“I am, yes,” she answers. “Vandham requests that I accompany him on occasion, for my less battle-relevant purposes.”

“You’ll see why she’s needed later,” Vandham says. 

No one has any further objections, so Vandham and Perun lead the way across the land bridge from before. There’s a cavern leading further into the titan, and they climb through it, following several paths uphill until they reach a clearing with an open view of the central portion of Uraya.

It’s there that Vandham stops, pointing out the lone ardun standing on the plateau. It towers over everyone in their group—the only notable exceptions being Malos and Vandham himself. It’s not noticed them, merely grazing lazily on the grass of the plateau.

“Y’ever tried working on combos with your friends here, Rex?”

He thinks about it, but the answer comes pretty quickly. “No, not really. Maybe once or twice, but not in any great detail.” 

“Well, it’s time to start thinking about ‘em. Let me see that grappling hook of yours,” he says. “Nia, you’re experienced. You know about breaking?”

“Don’t need to worry about me, Vandham,” she replies, reaching for her rings. Before they’re even in her hands, her affinity link with Dromarch blares to life like it’s second nature. Rex can’t help but wonder how long she’s been with Dromarch that it’s so simple for them—his link with Malos has only ever been a faint blue, when it existed at all. 

Vandham grins as Rex hands him the grappling hook. “Then if you’ll do the honors of breaking this fella for me.”

“Sure, not a problem,” she says, shifting into a more battle-appropriate posture. It looks almost as second-nature to her as her affinity with Dromarch—must be easier than breathing, sometimes. “Dromarch, you know the drill.”

“As always, my lady,” he says, bowing his head and following her into battle. It’s hard to tell exactly what she does next, but something in the way she attacks the ardun—a flurry of attacks, each fast-moving and well-placed, by the looks of it—causes it to stagger on its feet. It looks like it might fall, even.

“Broken!” Nia calls over her shoulder, leaping back in tandem with Dromarch’s leap forward. He catches her on his back effortlessly, clearing the area to give Vandham a clear shot. 

As soon as he has one, he fires at the ardun’s feet, flicking his wrist at just the right time. The cable wraps around the ardun’s unsteady legs. The moment it seems secure, he pulls taut, sending the ardun crashing to the ground from its unsteady legs. 

Before Rex can fully process what’s been done in front of him, Vandham hands the grappling hook back to him. “That anchor shot of yours can be good on its own, but you try that, and you’ll be able to knock opponents off your feet. They can’t fight like that, and it’ll take time for them to get up. With the right Blades and weapons, you can come in and send ‘em flyin’, too, and then smash them back into the ground.”

“Oh!” Zenobia whizzes past them, a flurry of wind as she readies her axe. “I can launch them!” As if to punctuate her sentence, she sweeps up from below the ardun, sending it launching into the air, and the way the wind whips around them seems to indicate she’s using her wind to keep it in the air longer.

“Different Blades can do different things. Maybe that Aegis of yours has a heavy enough hand to smash them, maybe your Nopon friend can topple them. It’s all about how you think, and how you use your weapons. I want you to practice that trick I showed you with your anchor with Nia’s help. That alone will give you a huge edge in battle.”

Rex nods, affixing the anchor to his wrist just as the ardun crashes to the ground with gravity’s help. After a few moments, it stands on its feet again, now sufficiently pissed, and charges at Rex. Rex responds by tossing his sword to Malos, who catches it effortlessly and puts up a shield to stop the beast.

“Over here, big guy! Rex, you ready?” Nia rides in on Dromarch, fully prepared and in her element.

“Ready!”

“Communication, that’s good!” Vandham stands off to the side, arms crossed as he watches the fight.

Nia draws the ardun’s attention away, sliding off Dromarch’s back in one fluid motion. As Rex watches her move, he can’t help but think she’s a bit more catlike than she’d like to admit. She’s fast, and agile, and it’s not long before the ardun is unsteadied yet again.

Rex takes a deep breath, and takes the shot with the anchor as soon as Nia backs away. _Hold for a moment… and flick your wrist in the direction you need the hook to go._ He focuses on imitating how Vandham did it, and when he sees the cord wrap several times around the ardun’s feet, he grounds his feet, flexes his toes to extend the spikes in his soles, and pulls with all his might.

“That’s it!” Vandham says as the ardun crashes to the ground. Zenobia flies in again, launching the ardun… and Malos? Malos saunters up with disinterest before bringing his sword straight down on the suspended ardun, sending it crashing brutally into the ground. “Yeah, you lot have got it down, no problem. I’m impressed!”

“I’m sure you’ve seen a lot better fighting, what with the Garfont mercs and all,” Rex says, retracting the anchor line as he speaks. “Zenobia, could you… put it out of its misery?”

“On it!” Rex doesn’t have to look to know how fast she responded to that request—the ardun lets out one last cry, cut short almost instantly. 

“Thanks.”

“Try not to downplay yourself, kid. You’re still green, but it took me years to learn the trick I just taught you. You saw it once and figured it out, which is pretty damn amazing.” He places a hand on Rex’s shoulder, a gesture that feels strangely comforting.

Rex can’t quite believe the words Vandham is saying. “Really? Years?”

“Yeah, years. Everyone was green, once. Keep learning that quickly, and you just might make it to Elysium.”

Rex can’t help but smile broadly at the thought. “Then we’ll have to practice, won’t we? I’m sure there’s plenty of creatures out there to practice on along the way to Fonsa Myma. Nia, Tora, you up for it?”

“Yeah,” Nia says, placing one hand on her hip. “Can’t hurt.”

“Tora fine with it! But… can’t help but feel like Tora not very helpful.” Tora’s shoulders drop.

“It true that masterpon not do anything in demonstration,” Poppi says, causing Tora’s expression to sink, “but masterpon plenty helpful! Need not be so sad.”

“Yeah, furrypon,” Vandham says, “we’ll figure out what you can do with that Blade of yours next chance we get to practice.”

“Poppi’s right, Tora, you’ve got your strengths,” Nia says, visibly refraining from completing her sentence. _Is she actually biting her tongue right now?_

Rex decides to speak up. “You built Poppi, after all. The world’s first artificial Blade. No one who can do that is useless.”

“Mehmeh… friends right. Many thanks!” Like that, Tora is back to his usual self.

Poppi leans over like she’s sighing, visibly exasperated. “Masterpon switch moods too quickly.”

“Well then, let’s haul this back to the village,” Vandham says.

“Haul?” Rex asks. What are they hauling?

He stops next to the corpse of the ardun— _Architect, Zenobia beheaded it_ —and pats one of its legs. “Waste of good meat to let it rot here. An ardun this size could make lots of rations for our mercs. You didn’t think I’d teach you all this for nothing, did you?”

“Well…”

“Yep, this is about what I expected. Alright, well, the sooner we get it back to camp, the sooner we can rest and eat dinner, right?” Nia asks, producing one of her knives. “We clean it here to make it easier?”

“Atta girl,” Vandham says. “Came prepared with a few good sacks to carry the meat in. Didn’t think we’d come across one this big, though. We’ll fill up what we can, and leave the rest for scavengers.” Vandham tosses the bags on the ground for filling up freely.

“I get it. You brought Perun along because she’s an ice Blade,” Malos says.

“Yeah, you get it,” Vandham says. “Freezing the meat helps keep it lasting longer, so I bring her along for hunting missions if she’s not busy.”

“I don’t mind,” Perun says, taking the large chunk of meat Vandham passes to her and coating it in a thin layer of frost before sliding it into the first bag. “It’s always nice to find use around the village, and it’s going to a great cause.” 

Nia passes out knives from the sheaths on her belt, and soon, everyone is working in a peaceable silence next to each other to clean as much of the ardun as they can reasonably carry back themselves.

As Rex works on cleaning the meat per Vandham’s instructions, he catches himself smiling. 

He’d been thinking when he woke up to Nia healing him that they’d hit quite the snag, but…

Maybe this whole thing was for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a ton going on this time. Starting next chapter is when things start getting more interesting again. :P
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	8. Unfriendly Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nia and Tora spend some time training. Nia goes for a walk. An encounter looms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaaaaaa finally got through editing this. Next chapter will be fun, mostly because I hate the first half of it and have to rewrite that part from scratch to fix it. Classes have been picking up a bit, but I finally worked out a daily schedule that includes spending time on this fic on a regular basis without sacrificing my homework, lmao. Most of the wait between this chapter and the previous one was finding a good chapter title and getting through school work, if I'm being honest. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> (EDIT: Made a sliiiiiiiiiight mistake on whether or not a detail was actually given in canon. That being said, if you notice any detail that's majorly different in canon and doesn't seem part of the AU, please (nicely) point it out to me because I don't have a beta reader to fact check me anymore and make mistakes lmao. Thanks!)

It’s quite the trek back to Garfont. Everyone’s lugging at least two full bags of ice cold meat, save for Tora, who has only one, and Poppi, who’s carrying three to make up for her masterpon’s slack. They make it back without incident, though, and dinner is lively and leaves the group feeling energized. 

After, Vandham takes Rex to teach the boy about how to turn the meat they brought back into rations for travel, and Malos tags along, as the resident (and reluctant) chef. 

The day seems to be dragging on for Nia. It’s hard to tell the time, with the sky being a mere shadow of the kind of sky you can see over Gormott, but given they’ve just had dinner, she assumes it’s getting late. She feels energized, yet painfully restless, her mind racing with thoughts of where to go from here.

She really wants to stay. She wants to support this whole ordeal—call her childish, but all that stuff Rex said about a better world, finding a way for there to be no more need for wars or fighting… She wants to believe in that dream, but…

There really is no choice but to run, huh.

Nia isn’t given the chance to plan much—Tora approaches her, drill shield in furry hand. “Nia! Tora want to learn how to be better Driver!”

“Eh?” Nia looks at him with a raised eyebrow and raised ears. “That’s good, Tora. Glad to hear it.”

“Would be very happy if friend could teach Tora how to be better fightypon.”

 _Ooh, **that’s** what’s happening._ “Why don’t you ask Zenobia to help you? She loves fighting.”

“Zenobia is _Blade,_ not Driver!” Tora frowns. “And Nia is good-good Driver. Knows more than Rex-Rex, and fights so easy! Tora want to be Driver like Nia.”

Nia hides a smile. “Well, glad to hear you’ve got some faith in me. All right, I can teach you. But I’m going to have to get a good look at how you fight. Go get Poppi and Zenobia while I handle something.”

“What Nia going to do?” 

“I’m going to go ask that Vandham guy if there’s any place we can use to spar.”

Tora’s wings spread out behind him in a panic. “S-spar? Nia and Tora going to fight?”

Nia smiles almost wickedly. “No, you’re going to fight Zenobia. _I’m_ going to watch so I can see where you need to improve.”

“Meh-meh-meh… Tora not so sure about this…”

“You’ll be fine,” she says with a laugh. “I can’t help you if I can’t observe how you fight, after all.”

“Meh… Tora will go get Zenobia, then…”

“Good, good. Then I’ll go ask Vandham.”

Tora bounds off to go ask Zenobia while Nia meanders over to where Rex, Malos, and Vandham are. She finds them next to a cooking pot near the center of the village. “Hey, Vandham,” she says as she approaches, “sorry to interrupt, but I’ve got a small question.”

“What’s that?” he asks, looking up from his work.

“Got any place Tora and I could use to spar? Little guy wants to work on his fighting.”

“There’s a training field right that way.” He points, and Nia follows it with her eyes. “Might be a guy or two training right now, but it should be open for use, so long as nothing gets destroyed.”

“We shouldn’t mess anything up, I just need to look more closely at how he fights. Thanks!”

Nia finds Tora, who’s collected Zenobia and Poppi, and it’s not long before she’s got Tora trying his damnedest to fight decently against Zenobia in the training field. Zenobia understands her purpose in this situation, which is incredibly helpful, given that Tora’s not already on the ground.

The more she watches Tora, though, the more she’s actually a bit amazed, in the worst way possible. The fact that he lasted at all when they fought against the Special Inquisitor can be attributed entirely to the fact that his weapon is a giant, hardy shield and that he appears to have the endurance of a brog—his movements are clumsy, ineffective, _unpracticed_.

She can see how he was able to stand up to Dughall, that was mostly just buying time for Rex and Malos anyway, but Vandham’s words to Rex before were absolutely spot on. Tora, too, is going to have to improve faster than any average Driver, or Rex and Malos will never be able to make it to Elysium.

“Alright, stop.” 

Zenobia stops, and Tora falls forward, unable to stop the momentum of the attack he was attempting to land. He lands on his face with a muffled noise. Poppi rights him with an expressionless face. “Meh-meh?”

“Tora, can you tell me how you fight?”

Tora tilts his head, lowering the shield and placing it on the ground. “Meh? Tora hit enemies with drill shield very hard. Hard hit hurts enemy. Mostly use it to draw attention and block attacks, though.”

 _Bingo._ “Right. You’re trying to hit harder instead of smarter.”

“What problem with that?”

Poppi tilts her head now. “Hitting hard not key to winning?”

Nia’s hands find their way to her own hips, balled fists, as she shifts her weight and sighs. “Hitting hard is important, yeah, but Tora, you’re smart. Look at Poppi. She’s an amazing piece of technology, she’s got her own personality and functions exactly like a natural Blade. And you built her. So when you’re fighting, you need to use those brains, and think of ways to hurt your enemy.”

“Tora not sure he understands,” he says. “Malos plenty strong and scary, and all he do is hit enemy very hard. Why that not work for Tora and Poppi, too?”

“You can’t just… Look, if you hit an enemy haphazardly, and you hit them where they’re strongest, you’re not going to be able to do much of anything. But if you hit where they’re weaker, and keep hitting in the same spot, you’ll be able to do a lot more, a lot faster. You might even be able to knock someone off their fee, which’ll make them a lot easier for all of us to hit.”

Zenobia leans on the handle of her axe with a smile. “Nia’s right. Malos _looks_ like he’s just hitting the enemy really hard, but if you can find a way to throw them off, or if you can figure out what works, you’re going to do a lot more to your opponent than if you’re just focused on trying to hit them at all.”

“So… Tora should try focusing on _how_ to hit the enemy.”

Poppi smiles. “Masterpon smart, but not very fighty-smart.”

“For starters, your shield has that drill that comes out the center, right?”

Tora nods. “That right.”

“And you know how earlier, Vandham was talking about Driver combos, and taught Rex to topple enemies with his grappling hook?”

Another nod.

“Why don’t you try doing something like that with your shield?”

“Tora cannot shoot anchor like Rex-Rex, though…”

Nia smiles. “Tora doesn’t, I mean, _you_ don’t need to. Zenobia, mind if we try something on you?” Damn noponspeak is starting to infiltrate her brain.

She shakes her head. “No, not at all. I can take it.”

Nia grabs her rings with a smile, slipping into battle stance. “Alright then. Tora, when I give you the go ahead, try knocking Zenobia over with your shield.”

With a nod from Zenobia, Nia, careful not to funnel any ether into her rings, launches into combat. It’s a conscious act to not compensate for Dromarch’s absence as she moves fluidly around Zenobia. The last thing she needs is to garner more suspicion before she leaves.

Once she’s close enough, she doesn’t bother with any arts. She aims high with one ring, making her movement obvious—Zenobia sees this, and dodges away. The ring barely brushes past her nose, but that’s fine. Nia wasn’t really trying to hit with the first attack anyways.

She sweeps low with her other ring, bringing it around behind Zenobia’s leg. It catches right behind her knee, and Zenobia, operating off a slight high from avoiding the feint, falls off balance, desperately trying to right herself.

“Broken! Tora, now!” she says, backing away to let Tora work.

Tora stares blankly for a moment. Then, finally, he seems to get an idea. “Poppi! Remember how Rex-Rex and Malos like to fight by passing weapon?”

“Yes, masterpon?”

Tora’s eyes sparkle with excitement. “Tora want to try that now. Zenobia much too tall for Tora to hit high and knock over, but Poppi taller and can fly! So Tora want Poppi to take shield, fly up, and hit Zenobia near head to topple!”

“Understood, masterpon,” Poppi says, her jets sparking to life in her feet. Tora throws his shield in the air, and Poppi catches it, executing Tora’s orders perfectly. Zenobia is thrown to the ground by the force of Poppi, and lands next to Nia with a proud grin.

Nia’s eyes light up. “Perfect! It’s not exactly the usual style of battle, but it doesn’t need to be, right?” She stops to help Zenobia up, pulling her to her feet. “We can practice that more with Rex and Vandham when we leave for Fonsa Myma.”

“Tora did something good?”

“I think so, furrypon,” Vandham’s proud voice interrupts as he enters the training ground. “I see you’re making progress, Nia, Tora.”

“Nia taught Tora to think different about how Tora fight!”

Nia rolls her eyes. “He was just trying to hit really hard. Sure, that may work for the average Driver, but sooner or later we’d run into a place where just hitting hard won’t do a thing. Figured it was best to put a stop to that now.”

“Probably for the best, yeah. You let them carry along too long with bad habits and they just get harder to break. What little I saw, though, looks like you’re teaching him an older fighting style.”

“Tora just think about what Rex-Rex do when fighting! Friend Nia only teach Tora to think more about fighty style!”

Nia stifles a laugh. “He’s got a long way to go, too, but sure, use him as an example. Just don’t follow him _too_ closely, alright?” Hopefully Rex gets some decent advice and training once she leaves. At least the Blades seem to know what they’re doing. Zenobia’ll have to take up the gauntlet of teaching everyone after Nia’s gone, it looks like.

“Well, we already beat up Zenobia, so I think I’m gonna call this training session a night and go for a walk,” Nia says, reattaching her rings to her belt. “Gotta properly clean my knives and all that.” 

Zenobia has a glint in her eye, curiosity sparking. “Going for a walk alone? Aren’t you going to bring Dromarch with you?” She leans forward, tilting her head to one side.

“Shouldn’t walk around alone around here. Been hearing tales of bandits and core crystal hunters, lately,” Vandham says. “You might be safer from Torna without your Blade around, actually, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Torna, you say…” Nia represses a shiver. “Are they hanging around Uraya now?”

Vandham’s eyes hold a weight to them that turns Nia’s stomach. “Couple of missions I sent men out on that no one came back from. Their corpses were found, but not a core crystal between ‘em. Lost too many good men to them.” He looks far away as he continues. “My point is, they could be. We won’t know for a few days after they arrive whether Torna’s here or not.”

She tries to remember what their plans were, but realizes too quickly that they could be anywhere. Akhos could already know where they are, if he wanted. “If they’re not already in Uraya, they probably will be soon.” All the more reason to get a plan to get out faster.

They’ve got to be. It’s the only explanation for why they didn’t do anything in Gormott. Why would they waste the energy, when Akhos and Obrona are able to find them anywhere?

She takes a deep breath, tracks down Dromarch, and goes for a walk.

~

Nia crouches in the soft sand on the riverbank, leaning over the water anxiously. Maybe she’s biased, but she’s always felt like water is the most healing element of them all. She dips the first of three knives into the water as Dromarch curls up in the sand and gets to work decompressing her thoughts properly.

The first thing that occurs to her as she works ardun blood off the blade is how easy it would be to just go. They could walk to Fonsa Myma, get some gold from hunting and selling meat and hide in town, and eventually get herself a ticket on a ship going anywhere but here. 

She considers asking Dromarch what he thinks of the situation, especially given everything they know. They’ve got a better chance of surviving Torna coming for her if they stick with Rex and the others, sure, but they’ve also got a much better chance of running into them at all.

She puts down the first knife and reaches for the second. It’s tough, coming to a decision, and she’s just about to break her comfortable silence when the air around her seems to _spark,_ and Dromarch raises his head in alarm.

She looks up, too, just in time to see a man in a blue set of armor land in front of her gracefully, followed by a Blade with wings and a helmet which covers her eyes. The familiarity in Nia’s eyes almost hurts as she looks at the two, trying to assess the situation.

The Blade’s wings lower, sparking with remnants of static as she giggles. “Did you miss us, Nia?”

“Obrona. Akhos.” She nods to each and pushes herself to her feet, grabbing the smaller knife she’d placed to the side earlier. 

“I see the traitor has gone off on her own,” Akhos says in greeting. He doesn’t draw the swords at his waist, choosing only to straighten his posture like a beast sizing up its prey. “Are you planning on returning to your Aegis and his friends? Or will you be betraying them, as well?”

She lowers her gaze. The electricity in the ether must have just been to announce himself. He _would_ do something like that. Pompous bastard.

“She plays such a good villain!” Obrona taunts in the background. 

Nia glowers, eyes set in a mistrusting glare. “That’s none of your concern, and I haven’t betrayed anyone.”

Akhos chuckles. “Do they know your big plot twist yet?”

“My plot twist?”

“It must be convenient,” he continues, “to hide who you are whenever it’s convenient. You _do_ know what’ll happen when they find out, don’t you?”

“They won’t,” she says, gritting her teeth. 

He chuckles with a wry grin. “Oh, to live in your reality. You really think there’s nothing stopping me from simply telling them at my convenience. I hadn’t thought you to be so naïve, Nia.”

“You wouldn’t,” she says, but her voice falters. There’s just about nothing Akhos wouldn’t do if he threatened to.

“I believe you already know well enough what I wouldn’t do. But, we could strike a deal… That is, unless you don’t mind your new friends knowing your past.”

Fists clench, teeth grit, as Nia’s figurative hackles raise further. She nearly _hisses_ under the pressure of the situation. But if she’s ever to trust her travelling companions enough for them to know who she is, they’ll learn that information on _her_ terms. 

Fists unclench, a deep breath releases, ears fold back as Nia comes to a decision. “What do you want me to do?”

“Oh, Nia, I knew you would make the right decision. It’s simple enough; you withhold what you know about us, where we’re located, our abilities, and I won’t tell your companions about you.”

Right. Just don’t tell them anything. She can do that.

Obrona giggles, a hand raising to cover her mouth. “We’ll know if you warn them about us,” she says. “If they react too well, if they’re not surprised enough…”

“I got it, okay? I won’t warn anyone about you or the rest of Torna, and they won’t find out about me. You can leave now.”

“Why should we?”

Nia turns back to the water, returning to the cleaning she’d been doing. Dromarch sits behind her protectively, eyes never leaving Akhos or Obrona. “I’m busy. Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Not for a while, no. And why leave when our mere presence antagonizes the resident traitor so much?”

Nia lets out an irritated sigh, wrapping the knife and putting it away. She rises to her feet once again. “Architect, you’d get along _great_ with Malos. I’ll handle this later. Dromarch?” She climbs onto her Blade’s back. He can outrun Akhos and Obrona any day. Maybe if they can make it back to Garfont, Akhos will do her the mercy of shutting up and leaving her alone.

At least, until he attacks. Not like she didn’t already know what he was here for.

“By the way,” Akhos says as Dromarch is preparing to run, “my orders are to handle you however I see fit. Don’t rest too easy, now.”

Dromarch takes off into a sprint before Nia can respond, and they return to Garfont in record time, knives not quite clean, head spinning with doubt. No doubt that was Akhos’s plan all along, but Architect, it worked well.

She returns to the room she’s gotten in the inn, which Poppi and Zenobia haven’t yet returned to, and falls into bed, pulling her knees to her chest and heaving a sigh. She thanks the Architect that Dromarch understands her need for solitude right now and slinks off to the room he shares with the guys. 

It’s a long, sleepless night for Nia. She manages a bit, yeah, but the added comfort of finally sleeping in a bed for the first time in a week or two is minimal when she’s faced with the knowledge that Akhos could come for them whenever he pleases, and she’s not allowed to say a word about it.

Morning arrives and a gentle light falls across Garfont village, and Nia crawls out of bed, tiptoes out of the room, and goes for a walk.

~

Nia’s joined by Zenobia some time later, having found a scenic vantage point in the village underneath a large tree. The added companionship isn’t really what she wanted right now, but she says nothing, choosing to stew quietly in her minor annoyance.

She sits, legs dangling from the small plateau, as Zenobia flies up to join her. She’s so… effortless. Nia briefly wonders if Zenobia’s ever had to worry about anything. She supposes she wouldn’t remember, anyway.

Nia wonders if she had a good life, in the lifetimes she can’t remember. Or did she have a life at all, before this one? Maybe this was her first awakening, and the first thing she did was corrupt herself and her core crystal, become an enemy of anything good.

Things could be different. They could have changed from the start, if she’d refused, if her sister had never…

“Nia, you okay?” Zenobia says, waving a hand in front of her face. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for five minutes now and you haven’t even looked at me.”

“Sorry,” she says, swallowing her concerns for now. She’ll keep all her problems inside her chest, and one day, she’ll die with them. “What were you saying?”

“I was asking if you’re alright,” Zenobia says. “It’s really early for you to be up, and you look like you haven’t slept at all.”

“I guess I did have trouble sleeping last night.” She kicks her legs against the rock they rest against, focusing on her breathing. Even if Zenobia’s right, even if she’s not doing nearly as well as she could be, she can’t exactly confide in Zenobia about this. “Sorry if me getting up this morning woke you.”

“Nah.” She waves it off. “I’m naturally an early riser, don’t even worry about it.”

They fall into a brief silence as Nia finds nothing to say, and Zenobia searches.

Zenobia watches the sky. Nia watches her feet.

“Does this have anything to do with you trying to sneak off the other day?”

Nia looks up at that, turning her head to look at Zenobia. “Well… not exactly. Different issue, same source.”

“What’d Malos do this time?”

Nia shakes her head. “It’s got nothing to do with Malos.”

“That’s a first,” she says, grin broad and lighthearted. “Guy’s got a knack for saying exactly the wrong things. I’m surprised you put up with him at all.”

“Same to you,” Nia replies, cracking a small smile.

The noise that comes from Zenobia is a short bark of laughter. “Even if I wasn’t determined to get him to fight me someday, I don’t have a choice. He’s Rex’s Blade too, after all.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Do you…” She trails off, unsure of her own question.

Zenobia tilts her head. “What’s that?”

“Nothing, sorry. Forget about it.”

“Hm, okay,” she says. “You’ve been acting pretty weird lately, but I’ll let it slide. Maybe you’re just like that.”

“Yeah, let’s just go with that. I’m a bit weird and all that.” Nia stretches, a languid movement that engages every muscle, and moves to stand. “Come on, come get breakfast with me. Could use a nice coffee.”

“Wanna race there?” Zenobia grins again, the flame of competition lighting in her eyes.

Nia rolls her eyes. “No way. You’d beat me. Some of us can’t fly.”

“Aw, you’re no fun, Nia.”

“Sorry ‘bout it,” she says, sliding down the side of the plateau and starting the walk to the tavern they’d eaten at the previous day. Zenobia followed behind her, and for a short moment, Nia almost wishes Zenobia was her Blade instead.

Almost. Can’t say she’d enjoy swinging that axe around, to be honest.

Vargel’s tavern doesn’t have any coffee, which isn’t quite the disappointment Nia wanted to start the day on, but whatever. Nia orders tea and some light vegetables for breakfast, and sits down to find Zenobia’s gotten tea with… steak?

“Interesting combination you got there,” she comments as she reaches for her own tea. 

Zenobia doesn’t seem fazed. “You should try it sometime. I’m pretty sure I could eat meat for every meal and never get tired of it.”

Nia gives a polite smile and takes a sip of her tea. “I’m good. Meat’s okay, but I couldn’t start the day like that. Too heavy for my tastes.”

“Bet you’d start the day with fish though, huh?” The smile on Zenobia’s face is teasing.

Nia’s ears raise in offense. “Oi! I’ll have you know that’s a stereotype.” She crosses her arms across her chest as Dromarch joins them. “…I do like fish, though,” she adds quietly. “Dromarch, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Whatever you choose is fine for me, my lady,” he says, bowing his head. “How did you find your sleep last night?”

“Fine, I’m a bit tired, wish this place had coffee, but I’ll make it. I’ll get you some steak and some water, hold on a sec.” Nia gets up and returns not long later with some food for Dromarch.

He bows his head in appreciation. “Thank you, my lady. You know me too well.”

“I could say the same for you,” she replies, a warm smile on her face.

“You two are so close,” Zenobia says, resting her chin in her palm. “How long have you been Driver and Blade?”

Nia’s eyes flick to Dromarch’s. She doesn’t like to think about the time when she awakened him, tries not to even think about the old days as much as she can, but she has to to get even close to answering the question properly. 

“Must be, what, six months now?” Might have skewed that number a bit. Might be best to keep all that stuff from the past under wraps. The more they know, the more they'll want to know. Besides, it's more of an answer to a different question. Years on the run, then six months with Torna before Rex reminded her she had other options to turn to. But they _did_ warm up to each other fast. Weren't really given a choice in the matter.

“That’s not that long. Must’ve been through a lot in that short time, for you to be such a skilled Driver. And your affinity bond with Dromarch is so strong already.”

Nia flinches. “Yeah, well, we didn’t get a lot of time to figure that stuff out. It just had to happen, and that was that.” She stares down at her plate now, eating to fill the silence that’s maybe her fault. (It’s absolutely her fault.)

“I’m not going to ask about all that stuff,” Zenobia says after some time. “If you tell me, that’s up to you, but you know we’re on your side, right? It’s not just you and Dromarch against the world. Not anymore.”

“I never said it was.”

She hums, sipping her tea slowly. “Yeah, well, I can see it in your eyes. Besides, can’t think of how else you’d get so close so quickly. That’s the way a Driver and Blade act when they’ve had no choice but to rely on each other completely. It must have been rough, but it’s none of my business, so I won’t pry any more. But like I said… it’s not just the two of you anymore. At least, it doesn’t have to be.”

The conversation dies as Rex approaches the table to sit. “…thank you, Zenobia,” Nia says quietly as Rex sits.

The boy glances between the two of them, a look of confusion written on his face. “Good morning,” he says, deciding apparently not to question anything.

“Morning!” Nia chirps, feeling like a weight’s been lifted off her chest. There’s still the knowledge of Akhos nagging at the back of her mind, the fear wrapped around her heart, but maybe it’s not so bad to have a little support. Zenobia can’t fully understand it, not really, but Nia appreciates the kindness, and maybe if she acts happy she can trick herself into believing she’s not afraid.

“We’re meeting Vandham at the training grounds after breakfast,” Rex says. “Going to get an early start on travel. He says we can probably make it to Fonsa Myma by night if we don’t take too many breaks and get an early start.

“Alright, got it,” Nia mumbles, drowsing a bit. Maybe she should have tried a bit more to get some sleep.

Rex pauses. “Are you sure you slept okay, Nia?”

“No.” She downs the rest of her hot tea in one big, painful gulp. She sets down the teacup, coughing. “That’s better. Sorry, didn’t have a good time trying to sleep last night. Got a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Rex says. “What we’re doing… it isn’t easy. But we’ll make it, right?”

“Of course,” she says, and she means it. He’s certainly determined enough to deliver them to Elysium, and he’s got the right idea of why. If anyone can get them there, it’s probably him. Probably.

Okay, so his skills need some work, but he’s got the rest of what he needs. They can work on his skills as a Driver on the way. Vandham’s already got him started down that path, at least.

Malos joins them, apparently having already eaten. “Ready to go whenever the rest of you are,” he grumbles. Nia knew he wasn’t much of a morning person, but she’d hoped he’d at least have taken advantage of the fact that they had actual beds and gotten some substantial sleep. She supposes she hasn’t fared much better.

Her plate’s basically clean, and Dromarch was focused on eating instead of talking, meaning they’re waiting on Rex and Azurda. Well, and Tora, who’s not left the inn yet, as far as Nia can tell. “We’ll be waiting on Tora for a while at this rate.”

Malos looks around, not seeing him, and groans. “I’m on it.” He stalks off, back to the inn, and returns not long after, lugging a frantic, still half-asleep Tora by the scruff of his neck, and followed by the ever-dutiful Poppi. He stops just short of the table and drops Tora on the ground unceremoniously. The poor slacker lands face first, his protests now muffled by the dirt.

He pushes himself up, looking angrily at Malos. “There still plenty of time left for Tora to sleep!”

“If you recall, everyone but Nia was told last night that we’d be leaving early today, and even she managed to be ready to leave on time. Go eat, or we’ll leave you here without breakfast.” Malos’s tone and glare leave no room for further protests on Tora’s behalf, and he silently bounds over to the counter to order.

“Thanks for that,” Rex says. “We’d never have gotten him up on time otherwise.”

Malos grunts, which seems to be the end of the conversation as he heads off to the training ground in silence, leaving Poppi to take a seat at the table, which is starting to get crowded.

“Friends sleep well?” she asks, ever innocent.

Nia shakes her head at the same time Zenobia says, “yeah, I slept great! How’d you sleep, Poppi?”

“Poppi does not sleep, but feels refreshed after extended time in rest mode without any damage to system. Was analyzing data collected during day of travel.”

“Analyzing data?” Nia asks, leaning on the table with both elbows. “What kind of data do you collect?”

“Simple facts about friends and environment. For example, humidity in Uraya much higher than in Gormott. Humidity in Uraya so high, it feel like Gormott when about to rain!”

“…you don’t think that means it’ll rain today, do you?” Rex asks. Like he’s not the one wearing a waterproof salvaging suit.

“Hard to tell. Poppi spend most of time in Uraya near water, but humidity only climb since arrived! We not know much about weather, so it possible that humidity means it rain soon.”

Nia restrains herself from letting out a groan. Her element may be water, but she’d rather not deal with the rain. Rain means cold and wet and camping in the mud without a fire, and slipping in the mud, and she’d rather not put up with any of it. Does it even rain in titans like these?

“If friends like,” Poppi continues as Tora sits down with a plate of sausages, “Poppi can keep data on Uraya and begin analyzing for potential weather conditions in future.”

“Yeah,” Nia says, “that’d be nice. Wish we weren’t racing against Mythra and the others here, or I’d suggest we wait until tomorrow to start travelling and spend today working on fighting and _not_ getting caught in the rain.”

“Friends think it rain today?” Tora asks, words still slurred by sleep.

Everyone nods. “Poppi said the humidity in Uraya is really close to what it’s like in Gormott before it rains.”

“Oh,” he says. “Poppi not have any databases on weather science. Environmental monitoring more for helping Tora maintain hair.”

“Really?” Zenobia says. “Data like that could make some serious advances in science.”

“Science not matter much, though. Weather not have any effect on how well Tora can build or work, so never thought about it. It possible that rain have effect on Poppi that Tora not see though, so left feature in.”

It baffles Nia how smart Tora is and yet how much of a dumbass he can be. “Well, we’ll have to see how well Poppi’s predictions turn out in terms of accuracy. It might be interesting.”

“Yeah, could be useful, too.”

“Friends want to hear more about data Poppi collecting?” she asks, seemingly delighted to be more useful to the group.

“Sure, let’s hear it.”

“In Garfont, there more than thirty Blades. Sometimes, Poppi can sense Blade even more powerful than normal Blade, but it not like Malos. When Blade and Driver fight together, it make special ether wave in air. Poppi detected wave like this seventy-one times yesterday. When friend Nia link with Dromarch, it even more special ether anomaly!”

Nia’s chest feels tight, all of a sudden. “R-really? Interesting.”

“When Rex-Rex link with Malos, it like they not link at all,” Poppi continues. “Rex-Rex and Malos not very close, while Nia and Dromarch very close! Poppi conclude that ether anomaly dependent on strength of bond between Blade and Driver. So ether anomaly of Nia and Dromarch very special. Rex-Rex and Malos have different kind of ether anomaly from others, though.”

Nia releases a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. Poppi keeps talking.

“Yesterday, Poppi feel anomaly from greater distance than before. Thought it was Nia and Dromarch because not feel it from others yet, but then Poppi return to inn and see Nia already asleep. It possible that another Blade and Driver like Nia and Dromarch in Uraya!”

...must be Akhos and Obrona, she realizes. They were out her way, and she doubts they went off to do nothing after bothering her all day. “When’s the last time you sensed the special ether thing?” she asks.

“Poppi not sure. Less data collected during rest mode, so if more special ether anomalies happen during night, Poppi not sense it. Did sense one about twenty-seven minutes ago, though.”

Ah, there’s the anxiety again. “Where, Poppi?”

“Out by training ground where Poppi train with masterpon, Zenobia, and Nia yesterday,” she responds. “Why friend ask?”

Nia opens her mouth, but remembers the deal she’d made. “Just curious. Tora, are you done eating yet?”

“Tora suppose. Not too happy about being woken up so early, but will make an exception this time.”

“Then we should probably go meet Vandham soon. I want to stop by one of the shops here to see about getting a blanket or something to sleep on, so I’ll meet the rest of you there, okay?” Nia stands, and Dromarch walks with her to the shops. 

The worry gnaws at Nia as she finds a nice-looking bolt of warm fabric. It’s really a shame that she’ll have to put it in the mud in order to look even slightly okay walking around. On second thought, she buys another bolt of the fabric and bags it as she walks over to the training ground.

She slinks into the training grounds, where the others are now all gathered, quietly, hyper-aware of the possibility of Akhos attacking. As long as she keeps quiet, she’ll be safe, right? 

Maybe that’s too naïve, but she can’t help but think that while she might not be physically safe, she can’t imagine him _not_ trying to kill her now that he’s basically been given the go ahead to deal with her as he pleases, but… her secret, at least, will be safe. The tiptoes it’s already made into the light are already too much for her. 

With any luck, she’ll be able to just be… normal. Just a regular Driver, and her regular Blade, on a quest to save Alrest or whatever. As normal as she can be.

“Say, Rex,” Vandham is saying as she approaches, “what do you think is the difference between me and, let’s say, Torna?”

The boy in question is so clearly caught off guard by the question that it’s a bit funny, but he presses on. “What? Well, I guess… it’s obvious, isn’t it? They’re bad, and you’re not. They hurt people, and you help people.”

Oh, so naïve. Although, to be fair, she’s not sure where Vandham’s going with this either. She tries her hardest to remove herself from Torna, and continues listening.

Vandham laughs. “Glad you think I’m a good person, kid. Truth is, we aren’t all that different. They’re not doing good stuff, no, but they’re fighting their own war. Everyone’s got their own war to fight, their own ideals against the world’s, and you’re no different. Tell me, what’s your war?”

“My… war?”

“While I appreciate the vote of confidence,” a voice says, sending Nia stock-still, ears up in alarm, “and believe me, I _do_ appreciate that you think so highly of me, really—all of the members of this rag-tag cast have arrived, so if you please, the show may _finally_ begin.”

Akhos appears, as overly dramatic as always, with a bastardous smirk on his face. He’s trailed by Obrona, naturally, and the air grows electric again. Seems Obrona’s preemptively activated her ability, judging by the sudden subtle suffocation that permeates the air.

“Who the hell are you?” Malos asks, taking a dangerous step in their direction.

She’s gotta give her former comrades credit. Anyone else Malos looked at like that would at the very least look like they were considering turning tail and running.

Akhos raises a gloved hand as if that would actually placate Malos, the incarnation of moodiness, and doesn’t bother wiping that damn smirk off his face. “Now, now, calm yourself. I merely had to come see the star of the show on my own! And what a star he is. Akhos, at your service.”

Malos scoffs. “Cut the shit. I’ve been hanging around here for an hour, and was alone for most of that. You had more than enough opportunity to approach me alone, but you waited until all of our group was here. What is it you’re actually here for?” As he’s speaking, he moves closer to Rex—the movement is subtle, almost so much so that Nia hardly notices. Apparently, she’s not the only one who does, though.

Akhos hums. “Well, someone’s shockingly attached to his Driver. Protective, even. I’d heard you revived this brat, but could it be that you actually care about him? Or is the interest a bit more… self-centered?”

Nia’s not sure entirely what he’s getting at, if he somehow knows about Malos’s surprisingly well-kept secret, but she steps in anyway, rings already in her hands. “Oh come off it, Akhos. Just tell us what you’re here for, alright?”

“Nia, you know him?” Rex asks as everyone turns their gaze to her. She inhales, exhales, keeps her eyes on the enemy. She can’t falter or get distracted here, especially not when it’s taking everything in her to keep the flow of ether into her weapons subtle, unnoticeable. If she’s right, and Obrona’s prematurely blocking the ether flow, it’s the only way she’ll be able to properly handle it.

“Now, Nia, have you forgotten?” Akhos’s voice is taunting, and he takes his own dangerous step in her direction, his expression warm and his eyes unflinchingly cold.

“Say, Akhos,” Obrona says, stifling a giggle, “now that I think about it…” She flies around, closer to Nia, halving the distance playfully. “You only said _you_ wouldn’t tell anyone…”

Fists clench around the handles of metal rings. They wouldn’t. They _wouldn’t._

In the back of her mind, Nia realizes they absolutely _would._

“You know, Obrona, I did say that. And as I recall, no stipulations were placed on what you would do with the information. I suppose that means you’re free to say as you please, hm?”

Nia learned to hate the sound of Obrona’s laugh early on in her stint with Torna. It’s sadistic, mischievous in a way that implies just the slightest amount of sadism, and the higher the pitch, the surer you can be that you won’t like whatever follows. Now, that laugh isn’t preceding some prank, but the loss of the trust Nia’s friends have in her, and she will herself to move. Begs, even. If she can just move, if she can just _stop Obrona_ —

She’s completely rooted to the spot, but it’s okay, because in the exact moment Obrona opens her mouth, a blast of darkness hits her directly in the face. Mercifully, the only thing that comes out is a yelp as she’s thrown to the ground from the impact. Nia follows its source to Malos, who’s holding his sword in one hand effortlessly. He must have closed the distance between him and Rex to grab it.

Another blast comes from the tip of the sword, aimed at Akhos—he gracefully avoids it., albeit narrowly. 

“Glad to see the members of Torna have no shame or sense of loyalty,” Malos says, not lowering his sword. “Do yourself a favor, Nia, and get moving.”

Malos’s words of support finally allow Nia to push past her fear and _move_. She moves swiftly past Obrona to where Akhos stands, his swords in hand, his affinity link with Obrona blinking to life, a strong gold line that doesn’t falter for a second.

“Stay vigilant, everyone. Akhos is a master of strategy,” Nia starts saying, her body moving without her thinking. “He plans every move Torna makes, orchestrates every major operation. The Blade, Obrona, can manipulate the ether in the air, so I hope you haven’t been relying on it too much, because she can cut off your link with your Blade like it’s nothing.”

She moves fast, faster than she ever has in battle, and Akhos can just barely keep up.

Vandham takes the cue and draws his weapons, his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Oh, I know the name Torna,” he says, borderline _growls_. “This guy’s one of them, you say?”

Nia nods, narrowly avoiding a slice Akhos makes aimed at her neck. He never was one for messing around. “One of five. There’s probably another around somewhere, but as I recall, two are out in other areas for a while. That leaves the leader and Pyra. It could be one of those two, or it could be both, but—guh—” One of Akhos’s attempts to fight back results in a slash across Nia’s cheek. “—either way isn’t an ideal situation.”

Vandham and the others join the fray, _finally_ taking in the situation, and Nia keeps talking.

“The rest of you might be safe, except Rex and Malos. He’s wanting to kill me personally. Everyone else is just collateral.”

“You know, Nia,” Akhos interrupts, his voice a growl, “you’re not following the script.”

“To hell with your script, Akhos.” Nia tosses the rings to the side—Obrona’s too effective at countering ether, another ability from her manipulations, and she can’t quite keep up the illusion that all of this is stored, anyway. Instead, she pulls back, and punches him in the face with everything she’s ever had.

“If you think that I’m going to sit back and let your stupid script play out, you’re dumber than I ever gave you credit for,” she says, standing over him.

He glares at her, a hand on his cheek. “Tch… Obrona, I’ve grown tired of this farce. We’re leaving.”

She sighs, throwing up a proper ether shield between him and the others as he sheathes his weapons. “Fine, whatever. It was just getting to the fun part.”

Nia watches as the two abscond and takes a seat on the ground, head in her hands. Quite possibly the heaviest sigh she’s ever sighed leaves her, and it’s only when she pulls her hands away to see the others that she remembers the blood running down her face.

The suffocating feeling leaves with Obrona, and Dromarch walks up to Nia, picking up her rings in his mouth and charging them with ether.

Nia accepts them once they’ve been charged, and Dromarch bows his head. “My lady.”

She releases a healing art, which closes the cut smoothly. “Thanks, Dromarch,” she says, patting him on the head and looking at the others. They’re all still trying to make sense of what just happened, and Nia releases the second heaviest sigh she’s sighed in her life. She’s got a lot of explaining to do (a lot of _lying_ to do) by the looks of it.

She pushes herself to her feet. “Everyone ready to head off to Fonsa Myma, then?”

“Um…”

The third heaviest sigh in Nia’s life escapes. “Come on. I can explain on the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally got to see my favorite boy in xc2! Who I'm really insecure in my ability to write an accurate portrayal of! But it's fine because it's Akhos and I love him dskfjhdskjhf
> 
> You can find my tumblr [here](https://akhosappreciationstation.tumblr.com/)!
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> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
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>   * Short comments
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> Thanks for reading!


	9. Trust and Reliance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Aegis Party travels to Fonsa Myma and unwinds at the inn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man. I kept flipping between whether I loved or hated this chapter. I'm settling at a solid "yes" for now. 
> 
> Currently deciding on a Blade for a later date, if you'd like to help make the decision come on by [this poll](http://www.strawpoll.me/17419144) and pick a Blade or two! I'd super appreciate the feedback, I've been trying to decide on this particular Blade for months at this point sdkjhfdskjhfdsjhf
> 
> As always, please enjoy!

Uraya is wet. Not only that, it’s humid, and it’s a horrible experience for those more inclined to fire-based ether. No amount of Aegis power can fully counteract the unpleasantness Pyra feels right now as a fire Blade in this environment.

 _’Pay attention,’_ Mythra’s voice echoes in her head. _’You were the one who wanted to make sure Akhos didn’t get done in.’_

“I know,” Pyra mutters. “I am. It’s just… stifling.”

_’Well, I guess that’s what you get for letting the Tantalese get ahold of Ophion. Maybe if we still had his control core we could be done with all this already.’_

Pyra pretends not to notice that Mythra’s clearly blaming _her_ for the loss of Ophion, like they weren’t a little too busy trying to stay undetected while gathering power to monitor Ophion. Pyra forgets herself for a moment and privately thinks Mythra should take her portion of the blame for once.

 _’I heard that, you know,’_ Mythra snarks.

“Yeah, well maybe you needed to,” she mutters back. “You could try being a little nicer, you know. You can’t exactly get rid of me at this point.” 

She can feel Mythra’s irritation kick up. _’You’re lucky I still need you.’_

“You’re lucky you have me at all.” Not that she needs to say it out loud. She’s thought it enough times that she’s sure Mythra knows already. “If it were you leading them and talking to them like that we wouldn’t have any help.”

Mythra snorts. _’You’re too nice to them. Just give them a reason to be afraid of you and they won’t run.’_

“Nia did,” Pyra retorts. Speaking of Nia, she seems to be the only one of Malos’s group that fully understands the situation they’re in. Pyra can’t hear from the vantage point she’s picked to watch, but she can see everything clearly—Nia has the posture of someone ready for any attack. As well she should.

_’Like I said, you’re too nice. Why bother being nice to them when they’re all going to be dead soon, anyway?’_

Pyra doesn’t respond; she’s too focused on watching as Malos swiftly and surely grabs his sword off Rex’s waist, firing a burst of ether from the tip of the weapon with dangerous precision. Akhos will be fine for now. He had to prove himself to become their strategist.

Still, the movement seems to have spurred the smarter of their group into action. Pyra watches as events unfold, preparing at any point to jump in and help Akhos if necessary. She briefly wonders how things would be different if she didn’t have to get Mythra’s approval to do things like this. She can’t bring herself to not care about her teammates for the short amount of time they’ll have left together the way Mythra doesn’t care about them.

She lets out a soft hiss as she watches Nia punch Akhos directly in the face. Akhos rights himself, says something to Obrona, and they retreat. Pyra finally lets out a soft breath in relief and moves to climb down.

 _See? He’s fine. No need to waste our time out here._ Pyra ignores Mythra’s voice.

Sever awaits at the foot of the plateau, arms crossed and a grin barely visible on his face. “Did you get what you came for, Pyra?”

Pyra nods. “Yeah, thanks, Sever. We should go meet up with Akhos. I suspect he’s already planning the next move.”

There’s shared nods, and with no objection or comment from Mythra, they walk off in the direction Akhos retreated to.

~

No matter how long they walk, the day looks more and more gloomy. Rex tries not to think too hard about the looming rain as they follow Vandham, but the sky doesn’t seem to want to let him forget. Nia promised explanations, but half-hearted attempts devolved to her talking quietly with Dromarch. They must be strategizing, sifting through information… Meanwhile, the rest of them still don’t know what’s going on.

The ground of Uraya is wet. Rex had heard the term “wetland” used before, sure, but he hadn’t been expecting to actually make use of his waterproof boots outside the cloud sea. There’s water as far as the eye can see, with terraced plateaus that appear to house all matter of wildlife and flora. In the distance, fog wraps smoothly around a staircase, which descends into the water below. 

At least this ridiculous amount of walking, coupled with occasional interruptions from the punchier of the wildlife, has a nice view to go with it. If the salvaging scene weren’t practically nonexistent here, he’d actually consider moving to Uraya. The trees here remind him of home.

A land bridge joins a plateau with a higher plateau, and it’s while they’re trudging across it that Nia finally decides to try her hand at those explanations she promised.

“Okay, I think I’m ready now.” Nia catches up with them, trailed by Dromarch. “Sorry about all that, I’m... there’s a lot. That you guys don’t know about me.” 

“There’s an easy solution to that, isn’t there?” Rex asks, shrugging his shoulder.

Nia’s ears flick back on her head. “What’s that?”

Gramps takes this chance to join the conversation. “I believe what Rex is implying is that you could try talking to us from time to time. Perhaps if you opened up, we would know more about you.”

Nia flinches. “I don’t really... like the idea of telling everyone. About myself.”

There’s a certain guilt in the way Nia’s holding herself, or maybe it’s fear; her ears are folded flat against her head, and she retreats into her hood, stubbornly refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Rex can’t tell if she’s walking closer to Dromarch than usual or if he’s walking closer to her.

“It seemed to be something rather important, though...” Rex frowns. “I don’t like that Torna knows things about you that we don’t.”

“It’s natural, isn’t it?” She shrugs. “I was with them for a while. It’s been a week at most since we met. These things don’t happen overnight, all right?” Her arms cross her chest.

She’s right, yeah, but he still doesn’t like it. “All right. So what’s this about a ‘deal’ Akhos and Obrona were talking about? You spoke to them?”

Nia falters under everyone’s gazes. “I should have left when I had the chance...” she mutters. When no one speaks, she continues. “Alright. I went to go clean the blood off my knives in the river outside Garfont yesterday. You know, get some fresh air, take care of my weapons, all that. I _really_ can’t tell you what exactly it is that they know, but Akhos and Obrona approached and told me how if I told anyone about his abilities or the rest of Torna, they’d... they’d tell everything they knew. And it’s not pretty.

“Maybe someday, I can tell you guys about that stuff, but right now? It’s really not necessary, and I can promise I won’t be letting them manipulate me anymore.” She promises, and yet, she still refuses to meet anyone’s eyes.

“It not important for Drivers to get along as well as Blades?” Poppi asks quietly. “Fighting harder when friends not trust each other.”

Rex feels hurt prickle at his heart. “Nia, it’s going to be real hard to trust you when we know you’re keeping secrets.”

“I know!” Nia says. “I know.”

There’s a long moment of silence. Then, Zenobia and Nia speak at once.

“Maybe I should just—”  
“Rex, maybe we shouldn’t—”

Zenobia pauses, giving Nia her chance to breathe and say what she wanted to say.

“Look, maybe we should be having this conversation when we’re someplace safe. You never know when something might attack us, after all, and I really don’t think—”

Rex thinks that Nia might have some kind of power to speak whatever she says into existence. At that precise moment, as the first drop of rain hits his nose, a loud, obnoxious voice cuts right through their obviously important conversation.

“Finally found you, Driver of the Aegis!”

For a split second, Rex thinks he might have something to be worried about. A pair of people in black cloaks—one tall, one short—appear seemingly from nowhere. Hoods cover their faces as the taller one speaks.

“You kept us waiting, Driver of the Aegis.” He extends his arm in a manner even more theatrical than his voice (one which might be intended to be intimidating, but honestly it sounds like this stranger takes himself too seriously), and it’s now Rex realizes that the shorter one is copying his every movement precisely. Did they… _rehearse_ this?

“Hand the Aegis over!” the shorter one demands. “We won’t ask again!”

“Or how about a fight!” the tall one follows up. “That way, your honor remains intact, and you lose the Aegis in battle! I can’t guarantee it’ll be fair, given the obvious difference in our abilities, but you’re free to try if you care about your honor!”

Honestly, between the voice, the tinge of desperation, and the choreographed dramatic flourishes, Rex isn’t quite sure how to respond. It’s just so… _ridiculous_. They’re busy. He was finally getting somewhere with Nia, and they’re not even... talking to him. This entire time they’ve been aiming their demands and choreography at _Nia_.

“We’re good,” Rex says, finally, turning up his nose and walking on past the pair. The others follow suit. 

Moments later, the pair runs around in front of them again to stop them, but the taller cloaked stranger slips and falls flat on his face, right into the mud. The shorter one skids to a stop and pulls him to his feet, quietly chiding him in a way that’s almost motherly.

“Alright,” the cloaked man says. “I get it. You don’t want to fight just any old stranger that approaches you. You’re busy, yeah? Got places to be, things to do? So make a deal with me, because we’re not letting you past until you give us a good fight. You fight us, and we’ll let you past if you win. If not… you have to come with us.” His hood falls back as he speaks, and Rex is met with the face of an eye patched man with silver hair and mud on his nose.

“Just who are you idiots, anyway?” Nia asks, placing a hand on her hip. “I’m almost inclined to fight you just because you’re _that_ annoying.”

“Hey!” The man stomps his foot in indignation. His shadow follows his movement with little lag. “We’re not idiots. The three of us will show you lot the true meaning of skill!”

There’s silence for a moment. Nia visibly counts both of their adversaries once, twice… 

“One, two… am I blind, or are you missing someone?”

The man chuckles darkly. “I’m so glad you’ve asked, furry-eared Driver of the Aegis.” He tries to remove his cloak dramatically, but he’s standing on the hem of it and nearly falls face-first into the mud again. When he’s restabilized, he tries a second time and flings the cloak… straight off the cliff behind him. Nice.

Now that he’s removed his cloak, Rex can see the man himself, and wow, that’s a lot of belts. Like, belts stacked on top of one another until they reach just above the edge of the man’s rib cage. He’s also not wearing an actual shirt—his are covered with a ratty jacket, which is left open so everyone can see just how many belts he’s wearing. At least his pants won’t be falling down any time soon.

“My name? Is Zeke von Genbu! Bringer of chaos! Smasher of dreams! Also known as Thunderbolt Zeke! And mostly importantly… your worst nightmare!” With yet another flourish, he gestures to the girl standing beside him, and she removes her own cloak, a lot more dramatically and a lot more elegantly than her cohort managed to do. “This! Is my Blade, Pandoria!”

Pandoria looks a bit classier than her Driver. Probably because she’s not wearing nearly as many belts. She’s got large glasses, which conceal her face, and short green hair, as well as clothes that are somehow just as eccentric as Zeke’s. The lightbulb on the end of her tail matches that of the hat on her head.

All in all, the two are a lot to look at. There’s still no third person here, though. Also, this Zeke guy called Nia the Aegis Driver, which is certainly news to him. Why didn’t anyone tell him Nia was Malos’s Driver now?

Before anyone can point out the mistake, Pandoria stands proudly, with one hand on her hip, and slowly raises her open palm to reveal…

Nothing. There’s nothing there. It’s just… her empty palm.

The two realize perhaps too late that their third member, who may or may not actually exist, is definitely _not_ present.

Zeke’s face drops as he takes it in. “…Turters?”

There’s another empty moment before both people are on the ground, in the mud, looking for… Turters, whoever that is.

“…Right,” Rex says after a moment. “Well, we’re just gonna…” He maneuvers around them, and the others follow suit. They don’t get far before Nia stops walking. 

“You don’t look native,” she mumbles, and Rex turns to find she’s talking to a small turtle she’s picked up. “How’d a beaut like you end up in Uraya?”

“Ah! Turters!” Zeke is suddenly right behind Nia and doesn’t quite stop his momentum in the mud. He slams straight into her back, nearly sending her to the ground.

“Oi, watch it!” Nia turns to glare at the guy. 

“How dare you,” he says, his own glare in place. For a second, Rex thinks he’s serious, but then Zeke merely takes the turtle from her. “Handling a man’s turtle!”

“Oh, yes, because me picking up a turtle off the ground makes _me_ the one doing wrong in this situation.” Nia takes a dangerous step towards him, jabbing a finger into his chest. “We’ve got stuff to do. How about you lay off, leave us alone, and while you’re at it, get a few of your facts straight before trying to pick a fight?”

“Can we go already?” Malos asks, voice gruff. “I’m getting pissed off.”

“Tora want to go too!” The nopon has furrowed brows, perhaps the least happy Rex has ever seen him outside of being woken up. “Tora tired! Want to make it to Fonsa Myma so Rex-Rex and friends can rest soon!”

“Besides,” Zenobia says, “It’s raining. Normally, I’d be all for a challenge, but… rain check.”

“Appearances can be deceiving, you know!” Pandoria says, stomping her foot

“Hey, Zenobia,” Malos says, “do us all a favor and blow these idiots off the cliff so we can get going.”

“Malos, no.” Rex gives him a stern look. “We’re not _killing_ them.”

Malos looks over the edge of the cliff for a long moment, considering the idea thoughtfully. “Can you idiots swim?”

Zeke looks up from fawning over the turtle just long enough to answer. “What? Yeah?”

“Zenobia,” Malos says simply. 

A delighted cackle is the only indication Zenobia gives before a gust of wind assaults the duo and their mascot. They brace themselves against it as Zenobia keeps the pressure on.

Panic flicks through Rex for a moment. “Wait, they’re annoying, yeah, but we can’t—”

“They’ll survive a fall from this distance,” Malos says. “I checked. The water’s pretty deep right below us. They already said they can swim, so it’s not like they’re going to drown.”

Even if Rex protested anymore, it’d be useless, because at that exact moment, Zeke slips in the mud yet again, sending him right off the cliff. Pandoria watches his descent for a few moments before looking back at Rex, Malos, and Zenobia, an exasperated look on her face. “I’m just surprised this didn’t happen naturally,” she says. “Guess I’ll go after him, then.”

“Wait, what are you…” Rex watches as Pandoria shrugs and leaps off the cliff after Zeke and Turters, arcing her body into a perfect dive on her way down. “You know, I feel kind of bad,” Rex says as he watches the splash in the water. It’s a long way down.

“They’ll live,” Malos says with a shrug. “With any luck, we won’t have to deal with them again. Come on, it’s going to start raining harder pretty soon.”

“Right, let’s go,” Nia says. “Maybe next time they’ll have figured out that I’m not Malos’s Driver.” She shrugs and starts walking, and the others soon follow.

After a long moment, Rex sighs and follows after the others. 

“That old staircase finally giving in?” Malos comments, looking towards the staircase in the distance. Now that they’ve been walking a few hours, it’s becoming clear exactly how huge this staircase is. Also becoming clear is the state of disrepair it’s in—there’s a huge gap where age and weather must have worn the stairs down.

“Yeah,” Vandham says. “Been a long time since they built it, after all. From what I’m told, musta been something like one, two hundred years before the Aegis war?”

“They were building things that grand back then?” Rex asks, keeping his eyes on the stairs. “That’s amazing.”

“The Aegis war set a lot back,” Vandham says. “Can’t even begin to think of where Alrest might be now without it.”

Gramps pops his head out of the helmet. “Before the Aegis war, we were looking at the start of a new era in history, for a much different reason than we now think of it. Much of Alrest was still unsettled, yes, but Torna in particular was making fantastic strides in the more academic fields. Yes… Malos and Addam did a lot to protect that sort of knowledge, but much of it now rests at the bottom of the Cloud Sea…”

“That’s enough,” Malos says. “I’ll tell them about all that when and if I decide.”

Nia raises her eyebrows (and her ears) at this. “Weren’t you all about trusting each other and all that?”

“Nia,” Malos growls in warning, “do yourself a favor and mind your own business.”

“Alright, geez, I won’t press,” she says, raising both hands. “Sorry.”

Malos goes quiet, and they walk for some time in silence. The awkward silence is perhaps a bit stifling, but there’s not much anyone can do about it, not without risking pissing Malos off any further.

And so they press through the assaulting rain. Rex can’t fault Nia for pressing Malos here; he’s curious, too, and it’s not like everyone else hadn’t been pressing her. Malos has five hundred years behind him, all that knowledge and experience that Rex and the others just… don’t have.

It’s hard not to want to know, but Rex figures the best thing he can do is wait for Malos to be willing to talk about it. He presses on, and slows down to say something to Nia that’s been bugging him for a bit now.

“Hey, Nia,” he says, causing her to flinch. She’s been watching her feet as she walks, ears folded back against her head, but now, she looks at him with startled eyes. “I should say sorry. For not noticing anything was wrong or doing anything about that Akhos guy.”

“You’re… apologizing to…” To his surprise, she bursts into laughter. “You betray a guy’s trust after being the single most suspicious person in existence, continue to be shady about your past, and he apologizes to _you_. You really are something, Rex.”

He blinks slowly as he processes her laughter. “Wait, you’re not… I don’t know, upset?”

“I’m mad at myself, not you or anyone else. I don’t expect you to have noticed anything. I was purposely trying to hide it from everyone.”

Rex’s eyes drift to where Akhos slashed her cheek. The injury has already faded to a pink line, the fractals from his electricity barely visible against her skin. Despite how fast she’s recovering, he can’t help but feel guilty.

“Still, I feel a bit bad. It took me so long to even think about how to respond when you and Malos started fighting that Akhos guy.”

Nia shakes her head. “No, I get that you were probably shocked. Besides, a lot happened fast. It’s only natural you might get thrown off. And besides, I attacked him out of nowhere. Didn’t even think about it.”

“Um…” Tora bounds to catch up with them and tugs at Nia’s hand gently. “Tora also sorry about what happen and not seeing that friend was upset.”

Finally, Nia cracks a proper smile, one where she’s not explicitly laughing at Rex. “It’s alright, Tora. Honestly, you lot apologize too much, and for all the wrong things. Akhos is Akhos, and there’s no getting around that. Just have to come to terms with the fact that Torna isn’t… my crew any more, and that they might not be too happy about it.”

“You knew they wanted to destroy Alrest when you were talking to them,” Rex says. “Why did you join them to begin with?”

Nia sighs. She’s been doing a lot of that today. “I was kind of in a… tough situation, when they found me. Didn’t really have much of a say in the matter.” 

Yet again, her past is just out of his reach, like she’s holding it far over his head and he can’t quite jump high enough to grab it. It’s so tempting to press, and really, he feels it’s important to know, but…

“Sorry,” she says with a grin when no one says anything. “Not the best way to continue a conversation.”

“Nah, nah,” he says after a moment. “I’m glad you’re openin’ up a bit, at least. The more I learn about you the more I think I don’t know anything about you at all.”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve been very forthcoming about yourself either,” she points out. “Don’t think I’ve learned anythin’ new about you since the day we met.”

Come to think of it, she’s kind of right. Their relationship as travelling companions has been based entirely around a circle of saving each other’s lives without actually ever talking to each other. Immediately, Rex feels the urge to apologize. 

“Hypocrites, the lot of you,” Nia says before Rex can say anything more. Her face twists into a joking smile as she says it. “How about we try talking to each other, before flinging around accusations about how little we’ve told each other, yeah?”

Rex nods. “That sounds like a plan.”

With a private smile, he catches up to talk to Vandham, and the rest of their push through the rain is spent with little event.

~

When they finally reach Fonsa Myma, exhausted, fatigued, and absolutely at their limits, the only thing Nia wants to do is sleep. But, realistically, they’ve all got a bit of work to do yet. 

After a brief conversation and budgeting, they split up to get everything handled faster, with Rex and Vandham heading off to the inn. Nia, Malos, and Zenobia make the decision to split the burden of acquiring ingredients for dinner, and Malos goes off with Zenobia to hunt down something meaty. Tora’s gone off somewhere to look at parts for Poppi, leaving Nia on vegetable duty. 

Those who’ve stayed open despite the rain (which has finally calmed a bit) are reluctant to serve her given that they’re trying to close up shop for the night, but when she flashes the bag of gold Rex handed to her, they drop any objections they might’ve had. Despite this, she’s quick, and given the guidelines Malos gave her, she’s in and out with the vegetables for tonight and heading back to the inn.

The bag of gold Rex gave her is lighter than it probably should be, she realizes. What’s this boy been doing with his money? He got paid a hundred thousand gold in advance for that job he took with her and Torna, and this is… definitely not a hundred grand. She makes a note to ask him what he did with that much gold later.

Nevertheless, she returns to the inn and places her purchases on the table, passing the gold back to Rex, who’s draped himself over the couch. He’s awake, but just about as exhausted as the other Drivers. The Blades, even, are draped around the room in various states of exhaustion, save for Poppi, who’s massaging Tora’s shoulders.

“Not really supposed to make that trek in a single day,” Vandham says, stretching. “Kinda surprised you kids managed.”

“Glad to see you have faith in us,” Nia says, a wry smile on her face. She takes a seat next to Rex, looking around for Dromarch so she can start running healing arts. She spots him in the corner. “Dromarch?” 

Dromarch lifts his head slowly and nods after a moment, trying to hide his own fatigue. Their affinity link blazes into existence once again in preparation for the maintenance on their travelling companions.

Nia doesn’t move yet. She merely lets the ether build in her weapons, taking the time to breathe. The ether builds just beneath the surface, not yet channeling into her weapons, and it stagnates under her skin. It’s not until the two Blades that were out hunting return that she reaches for her rings and allows the ether to flow into them..

Malos greets the room with his customary glare, Zenobia with a wave and the presentation of a bag of meat collected off a now very dead animal. They’re both dripping wet from the rain, the same as Nia. Nia leans forward in her seat to get some room to move.

It’s for the best that Nia is still are wet from the rain. The water-based ether channels through her rings fluidly, and the rings conduct the ether as she swirls them above her head, sending the ether washing over the whole room. The action seems to startle the others in the room, even though she’s been building the art for some time now.

The healing aura soothes the wounds of everyone present, so Nia can consider her role completed for now. Since she waited for Malos to return, she also won’t have to pull him off to the side later to handle any wounds he might’ve sustained from their trek, and she’s certain he has one or two, given how careless Rex seems to be for mitigating damage when in battle.

Speaking of Malos, she can’t help but notice that he’s giving her a look that’s either annoyance or some kind of roundabout gratefulness. She shrugs it off as her back hits the couch, sore muscles resisting her every movement. If he wants to complain, he can come talk to her in private. Actually, she _does_ want to properly thank him for the whole business with Akhos this morning, so maybe he can complain to her once she’s gotten that out of the way.

Goal in mind, she leans forward and grabs the cloth bag of ingredients off the table, nodding to the others. The movement hurts, everything does right now, but she forces herself to stand and holds the bag up to show Malos.

“Went out and got what you asked for to go with all the meat.”

Malos is taking the bag Zenobia has, and of course, Zenobia feels nothing after everything today, so she’s still raring to go. “I wanted to go out and get more, but _someone_ made me stop.”

“We can’t eat or carry that much meat,” Malos grunts. “If you want to be in charge of preserving it and carrying it around with us for the rest of time, then go for it.”

Zenobia pouts. “If it weren’t still raining, I’d go for my own hunting spree.”

He rolls his eyes. “Sure, just kill everything in Uraya while you’re at it. Be my guest.”

“Hey, don’t be silly, Malos,” she says, moving to lean against his arm. He pulls away smoothly, and Zenobia stumbles. If not for her frankly amazing control of the wind, she’d faceplant. “I’ve got to get stronger, right? You’ll never fight me otherwise.”

“I’m starting to regret telling Rex to resonate with you,” he mutters. 

Nia bravely decides to step in. “Anyways, we’re all hungry, so come on, I’m starving. I’ll carry this into the kitchen for you, Malos.” She shoots him a meaningful look as she speaks.

He gives her nothing but a nod he shoves Zenobia away with just enough force for her to get the hint and lay off for once. Once he’s finally freed from her confines, he follows Nia, who’s started walking towards the kitchen. 

Once they’re alone in the kitchen, Nia sets the bag of food on a counter with a sigh. “Listen. I wanted… to thank you for earlier. With Akhos. It’s not… he…”

Malos turns away from her, unpacking the food into some method of organization and searching for a proper knife. “They knew about you, then? Your old comrades?” He keeps his voice low out of respect for her secret.

Nia doesn’t hide her frown. “When I… joined them, it was because I’d been jailed and put to death for being… like this. They gave me a place to belong. I never made the choice to tell them, Jin knew somehow, and broke me out.”

“Jin, huh…” 

She doesn’t miss the way his shoulders seem to sag a bit as he says the name. “Did you know him before?”

“I might’ve, once. But if he’s acting on Mythra’s side, he’s not the Jin I know.” He finds the knives and picks one without thinking.

Nia rocks on the balls of her feet as she watches him work. “Honestly, I wasn’t there long, but… It’s more like Mythra’s on Jin’s side than anything.”

Malos’s voice is ever so subtly strained as he begins cutting meat. “That so?”

Nia nods, bringing the ingredients over to Malos’s corner of the counter. “Yeah. Mythra’s a figurehead, sure, and the others all had their roles, but Jin gave all the orders, even if the plans weren’t all his.”

If she didn’t know any better, she’d think Malos was actually sad to hear her say it. (No, scratch that, he’s just as human as any other Blade.) The way his shoulders are slumped, the way his voice seems to be masking a certain weakness…

“Father, what happened to him?” he whispers to himself, and Nia feels guilty that she hears him. His words feel the most broken of anything Nia’s seen from him, and she instantly knows she shouldn’t have heard him.

“Hey,” she ventures. She’s suddenly painfully aware that she’s never really tried her hand at comforting others before, and looks away awkwardly. “I don’t know your history. Not with Jin or anyone else. The only things I know are stories from people who weren’t there. But… This isn’t just your problem, yeah? You’ve got me, and Rex, and everyone else to talk to if you need to. Rex needs to trust you as your Driver, but you also need to trust him as his Blade.”

Malos doesn’t look at her or say anything in response. His knifework slows slightly—a crack in the armor. Nia pounces on it.

“I get it. It’s the same as you trying to hide your situation with Rex. But however long you pressed on, feeling like the weight of Alrest was on your shoulders, is over now. From now on, it’s not just you, you’ve got people you can rely on, and I’ll be right mad if you don’t let us at least try to help you.”

His knifework pauses completely for a moment, and Nia glances at his hands from the corner of her eye, rearranging some vegetables idly. 

“I’m not exactly… used to being able to rely on others,” he says.

It’s subtle, and maybe Nia’s just projecting, but she knows that tone of voice all too well. “…You’re scared.” She mentally winces at the observation. He’ll probably retreat back into his shell now…

Surprisingly, if he’s offended, he doesn’t say as much. Slowly, he goes back to cutting meat, slicing it into bite-sized cubes like Alrest depends on it.

Maybe right now, it does.

“So if you’re scared, what you do is start small,” she suggests. “You don’t have to rely on everyone else all at once or pull everyone together for some massive heart-to-heart session where you tell us all about your past or anything. Right now, just let one person help you.”

Maybe he’ll listen better with an extra push. Nia grabs a kitchen knife, a spare cutting board, and some carrots. Before the knife can even touch the vegetables, however, Malos speaks up.

“You’re holding the knife wrong,” cuts through the silence, “and that’s not the right kind of knife.”

She looks up to find him watching her. “Eh? A knife is a knife.” Not to mention that she’s never had a problem holding her knives like this. 

He sighs, but it doesn’t seem quite as exasperated as usual. “You’re holding it like a combat knife. You’re not fighting, though. So you need to adjust your grip for cooking.”

“I don’t…”

“Okay, first, put that knife down. Use this one.” He reaches over and grabs a seemingly random knife off the rack beside him. “Take your gloves off, too.”

She obeys, however confused, and accepts the knife he holds out to her once her gloves are off. “What’s wrong with this knife?”

“It’s a paring knife. You’d use that particular knife for preparing fish or meats. The knife I gave you is better suited to cutting vegetables.” He replaces the knife Nia had been trying to use in its spot on the rack, and picks his own back up. “See how I’m gripping this?”

Nia looks at his grip, then back down to her own. Where he’s got fingers steadying the blade, she’s wrapped all five around the handle—she adjusts her grip to mirror his, and he nods before turning back to his own knifework.

“Wash the carrots first. Your hands too, while you’re at it. Then, cut the tops off and slice them in half longways,” he instructs. 

They fall into a rhythm like this; no more conversations about the past or the future or any of the things the two of them are too scared about to say out loud.

Just Malos, telling Nia exactly how she can help him, and Nia, helping him.

~

_“Why… are you here?” Malos says, sitting up from his position at the base of the tree. He’s in Elysium once again, after having fallen asleep in the inn in Uraya._

_Rex shrugs his shoulders, equally as confused. “Beats me. I just woke up here.”_

_Something seems off about the statement, but Malos leaves it. Not his place, anyway._

_Besides, he’s more concerned at how the brat is here. “I guess bringing you here once opened the door for you, or something.”_

_“Could it be this?” Rex asks, gesturing to the purple ‘x’ on his chest. It’s something the two haven’t been thinking about, not since all this started, but Malos supposes it does warrant his attention._

_And it makes sense. “Yeah, probably that too.”_

_They fall into silence. Malos stares out at the church on the horizon, the bell ever-ringing._

_After some time, Rex sits next to him, looking out over the horizon with some type of wonder. “Has that bell always been ringing?”_

_“Yeah,” Malos says. “Hasn’t ever stopped since I went to sleep.”_

_“You don’t ever get tired of it?”_

_“I did, once. When I first went to sleep it was like a nightmare. The bell never stopped.” For once, Malos feels okay to show some level of vulnerability. “I got used to it after Father knows how long. It doesn’t feel like there’s any time here.”_

_“I get that,” Rex says. “Must be maddening.”_

_“Somehow, it’s comforting after all this time. Although I haven’t come back here since I woke up.”_

_“So this isn’t normal for you?”_

_Malos shakes his head. “No. It makes sense that I’d be able to return, since this Elysium is just a place in my memory, but I wasn’t… trying to.”_

_Rex sighs, his shoulders appearing heavy. “Sorry, just… I’m asleep, but I still feel tired.”_

_“I get that, kid.”_

_“Do you?” Rex asks, and it seems he’s not intending to come across as bitter-sounding as he does. “Sorry. You just seem so… strong. Everything happens, and you’re always just looking ahead, like nothing really bothers you.”_

_“You learn to look ahead after years of being stuck on the past. I had 500 years to worry about shit. After a while, you just don’t worry anymore.”_

_“Things don’t bother you, then?”_

_“I can get annoyed. That’s not what I… Look.” Malos leans forward, rubbing his temples. “I don’t really… **like** showing my emotions. It’s not that I don’t have any.”_

_“It’s alright to, you know.”_

_“I know,” Malos says. The look Rex gives him feels like a ‘do you really?’, but he ignores it. “It’s something I’d have to work up to.”_

_“That’s okay. You can take your time as much as you need.” Rex pauses. “To be honest, you’ve already been doing really well with opening up.”_

_The words temporarily stun Malos. “What.”_

_“Yeah. Like how back when we first got to Uraya, and you thanked me for lending you the lamp.”_

_“I was trying not to think about that,” Malos says with a groan. “This whole… talking to people thing, is new to me. I didn’t really do that, back with Addam and the others.”_

_“Can you tell me? About Addam?”_

_“There’s not much to tell,” Malos lies. Of course he could go on about Addam, or his time with Jin, and could probably talk for hours about it, but…_

_Let’s be perfectly clear here. He doesn’t want to._

_So he doesn’t. He keeps his trap shut on his past, and Rex, whether he’s being polite or is simply too scared to press the matter, doesn’t keep asking for now._

_“Sorry,” Rex says instead, and shifts in his seat on the ground. “Actually, I didn’t just wake up here. I was… dreaming on my own, before this.”_

_Malos can’t honestly say he cares, but he humors the kid. “Yeah?”_

_He nods. “I keep having dreams about the night we found you,” he continues. “Can’t imagine many people can say they remember dyin’.”_

_Oh. Ohhhh. Rex looks vulnerable, actually vulnerable, and it occurs to Malos that he really has become the Blade of someone who’s just a kid. Addam had always been looking forward. He was a prince, leader of a militia fighting for peace, of course he was stronger than Rex is. This kid was probably just trying to make some money, and now he’s stuck with… well, trauma, an insurmountable task, and Malos._

_“I felt myself die again, and I was wishin’ for a way away from it, and then I was here again. Away from all that. Guess this isn’t just a dream, though.”_

_Guilt creeps in at the edge of Malos’s consciousness, if only for a moment._

_“Are you glad that you’re alive now?”_

_Rex pauses. “Yeah. I don’t… like that I can remember it, but being alive? Getting a chance to reach the real Elysium? It’s more than I could have dreamed of before.”_

_“Good,” Malos says, and the guilt lifts. “Good.”_

~

For the first time in ages, Malos wakes up from a night of restful sleep. 500 years of being dormant at the bottom of the cloud sea notwithstanding, he doesn’t remember the last time he truly slept. Yeah, he’d close his eyes and lay down in the dirt and not say anything to anyone or get up for a while, but it never really did much of anything before.

Cooking with Nia had been surprisingly relaxing. Back in Torna, with Addam and the others, he never wanted to cook with anyone. Addam was completely hopeless when it came to cooking, so he’d been in charge before they came across Lora and Jin. Jin was skilled, but too quiet. Cooking with him had been unnerving.

Strange, then, that Nia’s silence when helping him cook was more of a comfort. By all rights, he’d liked Jin more than he’d ever like Nia, and to be honest, more than he’d cared to admit.

Maybe that’s why learning _he_ was at the head of the new Torna hurt so much. And Malos was never hurt, by anything. He’d spent the past 500 years dealing with his grief in complete isolation, with only his memories to deal with, and more painful than learning he’d failed to do his one job, his only purpose, while defeating Mythra originally was the fact that when he finally woke up, one of the first things he learned was that Jin was decidedly no longer his ally.

He wanted—no, _needed_ —to know why Jin was like this now, what had happened to him. It went against everything Malos had learned of Jin during their short time together. What makes a borderline pacifist turn into the leader of a terrorist organization siding with an Aegis who wants to eradicate humanity?

And yet, somehow Malos didn’t feel like Jin would be quite so willing to answer why he was part of this Torna, why he now supported the wrong Aegis. Frankly, he wasn’t all that interested in the labor it would take to find out. 

He’s an _Aegis_ , Father’s sake. His job is to eradicate the problem before it causes any more trouble, not talk with it about its feelings. No matter what Addam had told him before they parted, that wasn’t about to change.

 _Then_ , he thought, _why do you continue to act alongside these people?_

The idea stuns him, a bit. He can’t tell whether he’s more shocked that he had the thought at all, or more shocked that he’s never thought of it before. It would be so… _easy_ , to just leave. Keep the boy away from the knowledge of society. No one would have to know who his Driver is, or be able to try to attack him in hopes that Malos would deign to act as their Blade instead, and he wouldn’t have to put up with constant challenges to fight from Zenobia.

He shakes the thought off. Sure, Mythra may be able to act without her Driver, even what must be ages past Amalthus’s death, but the thought of acting like Mythra almost turns his stomach.

Besides, he’d never be able to live with himself if he revived the kid, only to let him die in his absence. Mostly because he’s gotten to the point where he’s almost positive he’ll end up dead if he does. The way he seems to be taking on any damage Rex receives doesn’t bode well for his supposed immortality, at least.

He briefly wonders whether he made the right choice in reviving the kid.

_Of course you did. If not, you might not have woken up before Mythra restored her core._

Of course. Of course. And anyways, there’s no use wondering about the what-ifs at this point. 

Malos pushes himself out of bed and moves to get started on breakfast before the others wake up. He’s feeling strangely energetic now. Maybe that’s what actually getting sleep for once does to you.

He glances around the room. If Rex is awake, he’s not giving any indication of it. Looks like Malos is the early riser as usual, if not sleeping counts as being up early. He grabs the bag of coin Rex normally carries and walks out. It’s time to go grocery shopping.

The sun is rising over the city of Fonsa Myma when he leaves the inn to go shopping. If he weren’t the only one of their number awake, he’d make someone else go deal with the bustle of early risers and merchants in the marketplace.

Still, the amount of people could definitely be worse, so Malos pushes through and returns to the inn with ingredients for a proper breakfast for everyone. The addition of Roc and Vandham makes cooking for everyone an even bigger ordeal, and they’re starting to run out of gold. He makes the mental note to talk to the others about getting some more gold on hand so they can keep this travelling thing up.

Malos pockets the bag of gold for now, and sets about breakfast. He’s hyper focused on cooking, so much so that he almost doesn’t notice the sound of someone entering the kitchen.

“Good morning,” someone says, and Malos nearly flings the pan of bacon he’s frying. Poppi stands in the doorway, an innocent, blank look on her face. “Friend sleep well?”

Malos grunts, turning his attention back to the stove. “Yeah, guess I did.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay Zeke! Yay Pandoria! Yay spending 30 years deciding whether or not to completely change the scene wherein there is both Zeke and Pandoria!
> 
> You can find my tumblr [here](https://a-khos.tumblr.com/)!
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